Strength and Honour
by Zayaz
Summary: Byakuya is rescued and rescues in turn and that sets off a chain of events that span years and all the Bleach worlds. Some AU, please read chapter 1. Byakuya/Renji/OC as main chars. Eventual M rating when Chap 10 posts. Long fic in revision.
1. Introduction Please Read This!

**Please read through this before starting the story.**

**1)** This one is going to be long. Really long. The first revision came just around 236,000 words.

**2**) There is violence against women and men, death, rape and a multitude of things going on here – if you don't like this, there are going to be many chapters that do not amuse you. Don't read it.

**3**) There is no Yaoi, there is het sex, some fluffy stuff, but most of it keeping in tune with the story. Later on - **much later on** - there is very violent consensual sex.

**4)** Concerning canon characters: This starts out centering around Byakuya. I am a Byakuya fan, but I see him as much darker character. However the middle it goes to centering around Renji. The end centers around someone else (sorry, but it screws up the story if I start giving away my plotline.) Many other characters make appearances.

**5)** The main character is non-canon. Sorry. Two persistent characters that appear in the middle and last to the end are also non-canon.

**6) **The Spoilers. I base most things off the manga, but have pulled a little out of the anime where they did some filler. (No, nothing much from the bount line.) This story pulls things from the beginning of manga all the way to the turn back the pendulum. So, for all people who only watch the dubbed versions of bleach, a lot of this may be not understandable. Also, for all people whom only watch the subbed anime, there may be some references that don't 100 make sense.

**7**) The Alternate World/History (Please read this or stuff really ain't gonna make sense and the history will contain spoilers.)

This takes place after Ichigo becomes a vizard, but before Orihime gets captured. In fact, that whole deal with Orihime did not ever happen. That is where this story will divert totally from canon and start on its own.

So in short, what is the world where this begins and what of the canon have I changed?

-Soul Society does not have captains for 3/5/9

-They are still in the middle of recovering from all the crud that went on with the Bount and Aizen's betrayal.

-The "winter war" has been postponed because Urahara let loose a device in Hueco Mundo that dramatically reduced/destroyed the effects of the Hougyoku. Thus it will be years/decades before it can be activated. This will be referred to, but not written in. This lets Soul Society have some time before the attack.

-Rukia is not present in this story except via character reminiscing. It's not because I don't have love for Rukia, but she just didn't fit in. She is alive and well, but absent.

-The "real world" characters are there, but more as cameos and much later on.

-There is character death, actually quite a bit of it now that I'm doing a body count. Hrmn, maybe that'll change in revision.

-Soul Society does not have a lot of the goodies (as is seen) as the real world. They don't have factories or plastics or special plants, so it is written as if SS doesn't have those things. So it's brushes, paper etc instead of pens and notebooks (as an example.) There are imports of course and blackmarket things, otherwise how could all those cool gadgets from 12th get made! Or the cell phones! However, I'm going a bit more rustic for the Soul Society.

-Byakuya and Renji aren't quite the arses to each other as they used to be. I built off the "joke about Senbonzakura cutting hair" shinigami cup as well as the "Rukia's SWO meetings" and the omake chapter where Renji and Byakuya make the game that's no fun with the rich nobleman buying everything.

-Byakuya and Zaraki tolerate each other. This is based off the shinigami cup where Byakuya says he enjoyed spending time with Zaraki. It is also based off the cups where Yachiru is messing around with his house and the omake manga where she comes in only to be jumping out the window after the candy and making Byakuya lock all the doors (one of my all time favs.)

-All the Numeros are alive and well.

**8)** Finally, things about the main character: Because people do complain (as I have read in the last few weeks after joining fanfic) about a char doing impossible things. The main char (non canon) will do impossible things, but it is explained by the story. She (yes, a she) will be exceeding standards all over the place; please don't read if you don't like that.

**9) **As for updates. I'm going to be taking chunks and doing revision and putting them up when I get the chance. May happen quickly, but it may not. I'm not sure how this beta thing works – I keep seeing references to betas and checked out how to become one, but not how to get one… If anyone would like to help proof who has time and won't get uptight if I won't change something, I'd be happy to get some help.

I poured all this out of my brain in a couple of weeks and now have to do major rewrites to fix some POV and continuity as well as add in a bunch of stuff where I did a one line of "and then yadda yadda and now we're in a more interesting part of the story." So it's a rewrite/revision of 415 pages that may turn into a lot more. (Insert a font size 72 unhappy face here) I won't publish chapters that are less than 3000 words so I can get this out as fast as possible and off my desktop.

**10)** Verbiage and other stuff. I will interchange Captain/Taichou, Vice Captain/Fukutaichou, Commander-General/Soutaichou. Saya the sheath a katana is in. Kimono More formal heavier. Yakuta Lighter spring/summerwear. Hakama Loose fitting pants (think of what the shinigami wear.) Obi sash that ties on the kimono or yakuta. Juban are used under the kimono. Bathing areas are mostly formal japanese style where they rinse/shampoo first and then soak, making sure they're clean before getting in the water though some showers do appear. Beds are implied to be low or futons (japanese style.) Senbonzakura I made female, Zabimaru male (although that was implied in the manga and anime.)

As the story goes on if more explanation is needed in the world that was created, I'll add into this chapter.

Uh, and now I'm realizing that this'll be the first chapter, which will be less than 3000 words. Dangit all. Well, y'all know what I meant.


	2. 1: Chance Encounters and Omake

Kuchiki-Taichou visited the forest outside of Rukongai at least two or three times a week. After a stressful day of dealing with the nobility or the mountains of paperwork or idiots who thought that they knew better than him, the forest seemed to calm him. He could meditate and practice undisturbed and be able to return back to all his duties with the strength that he knew was expected from him. Since he forced the rest of the Kuchiki high nobles back onto their own respective estates, his house had become quiet. Only the servants remained or the occasional guest from his family staying over when they wished to spend some time in Seireitei.

He had brought his family into new heights of wealth, power and influence through shrewd business practices as well as making formidable alliances with many of the traders of Soul Society. Single handedly he had made sure that every part of his family was well cared for and that countless generations of descendants would never want for anything. Of course there was opposition, but after cutting them down about Hisana and then Rukia they fell silent when even those lapses did not stop the family's name from soaring higher. He had long suspected that his house had been the final cause of Hisana's death and on the day that he left his grief on her shrine, but treasured his anger, he made the silent decision that his house would no longer be run by a council, and that evening he dissolved it and sent them all away.

As expected came the threats and persuasions. There were speculations that he had lost his mind and that it would all be reversed in a few months. However, when the years passed and the head of the Kuchiki clan never sent notice to bring back his advisors, they realized that they had been regulated to the history books and, surprisingly, took it well as long as Byakuya-sama kept their name the highest, which he never failed to do. All it took was massive amounts of work from Kuchiki Byakuya, who already had an entire division to manage. He knew that working seven days a week for eighteen hours a day was probably not the healthiest thing for him to do, but he preferred that over ever having to deal with those meddling old men and women again and keeping his small measure of freedom.

As his landholdings and investments had grown, so had the amount of paperwork and decisions he had to make. He found himself getting even more irritable and cold as more and more responsibilities piled up and often took it out on his fukutaichou, Abarai Renji. Now that their relationship was a bit less distant he tried to make it up to him in various ways, but he knew that Renji was getting tired of his attitude and regretfully the Captain knew that his fukutaichou's annoyance was justified. Finally Byakuya threw up his hands and requested an audience with Commander-General Yamamoto. Predictably, it was granted within a few minutes.

"Kuchiki-Taichou." Yamamoto nodded as the man gave a slight bow and stood before him. Byakuya handed him a written request, as was outlined by Gotei 13 procedure. Commander-General Yamamoto opened it, read it, looked up at his 6th squad captain and gave a sigh.

"Vacation?" he asked and Byakuya gave a slight nod. "Why?"

"I'm not completing my duties as a captain nor head of my clan to my satisfaction. This time will allow me to get things in better order," Byakuya replied, keeping it short. Yamamoto stared at him and while Byakuya could hide his inner self from almost everyone else in Seireitei, two thousand years of experience let him feel the tension and stress emanating from the younger man. This was not the best time to let a Captain go on several weeks' vacation, but Yamamoto knew that to make him keep working past the limits of his endurance would be unforgivable.

"Approved. Make sure your fukutaichou is properly briefed. Will you be staying in Seireitei?" Yamamoto asked and Byakuya felt a slight tension in his shoulders disappear hearing that his request had been granted.

"Yes, I will be spending most, but not all, of my time here," he replied and Yamamoto nodded and stood to indicate dismissal.

"Thank you," Byakuya said and bowed out, his step just a little lighter.

Back at his office in the 6th division headquarters he finished his paperwork and started writing information that Abarai Renji might need while he was gone. In a few days his squad would be on the two week off rotation – the squads had a 12 week on, 2 week off schedule. That meant Renji would only be in situations where he could make disastrous decisions for two weeks past the two-week rest.

Byakuya sighed and had a flash of the Division 6 barracks getting burnt down from drunken riots. He had just finished a layout of Captain duties when Renji came in from doing training with the squad. Mercifully, he had changed his clothes before coming into the offices. The first time he had arrived muddied and sweaty Byakuya had told him that he expected more of his fukutaichou and it wasn't acceptable for him to look like an animal in front of his subordinates, much less his superiors.

"Taichou," Renji said and started towards his smaller office attached to his captain's.

"Fukutaichou, sit," Byakuya said and Renji turned on his heel and headed back, sitting opposite his Captain. For a minute Byakuya just stared at Renji, hoping that this young man would be able to control himself and accept the responsibility. While this was not his choice as a fukutaichou, in fact it was done contrary to his requests, Renji had proved to be reliable and goal oriented. Renji squirmed under his Captain's cold gray gaze and wondered if he was going to be demoted or disciplined.

"Taichou, if this is about the bar in Rukongai last week, really, we made sure that everything there was fixed and…" Renji started and Byakuya sat back a bit in his chair.

"No, it's not about that," Byakuya said and kept regarding him steadily. "I'm taking a month off starting at the end of this conversation. You will be acting Taichou during that time. I have written down the lists of duties and expectations as well as meeting times and what is expected from you concerning conduct." Byakuya pushed the papers over to Renji's side of the table. Renji stared dumfounded at them.

"Uh, Taichou, a-a-a month?" he stammered. Being in charge of a division for a month, which meant that there would be no sake-drinking parties in his near future. Besides that, it meant castration by Senbonzakura if he messed anything up. Just grand.

"Yes, a month. I will usually be here in Seireitei, but in case anything comes up I will make sure to keep you appraised of my whereabouts," Byakuya said and Renji straightened and nodded.

"Yes, Taichou, I'll do my best," Renji replied as Byakuya stood up to leave.

"I'll be expecting that." Byakuya said as he walked out the door and Renji groaned and looked at the two inch stack of papers Byakuya had left for him. He glanced at the first one.

_Etiquette for taichou meetings_

Great.

Byakuya realized that he felt better after just letting go and requesting the vacation. Stepping into his estate his deferential servants immediately came to relieve him of his haori and gave him some tea to sip before he went to change into something more casual. He slipped on a dark purple yakuta and went to his study to start on his bookkeeping. Byakuya planned that in the next couple of weeks he would visit all the major Kuchiki properties to make sure that they were adequately productive, but he needed to do research on each property so that he had an accurate idea of their current state and he could better know what could be improved.

Additionally there was a basketful of private correspondence from various members of his family asking for trivial things and an equally large basket from other noble families asking for not-so trivial things. After book marking all the areas that were important in his ledgers he started with the family correspondence, gritting his teeth at some of the snide remarks and insinuations, especially from relatives asking him when they "would be invited back to the estate" or "when he planned on completing the Kuchiki family" or "arrange a good marriage for my 'insert daughter, sister, widowed mother'". He calmly took his brush and a goodly stack of parchment and started replying; carefully wording each letter in the highhanded noble language he had been taught.

It was almost midnight when he finished and he put all of his outgoing mail near the door where a courier would pick it up in the morning and distribute it. Some of the servants were still up, worried that he hadn't eaten and hovering annoyingly until Byakuya shooed them away, telling them to get some rest and leave the food in the kitchen. They scampered away and Byakuya went to put on his shinigami uniform, something he always wore when taking his walks. Hisana loved him in his captain's outfit when they went out walking, she said that it was wonderful because it… _not going to think about Hisana, not now._

After changing he went into the kitchen and got a flask of water and some of the spicy bean paste cakes that his cooks had made and headed out to the woods outside of Rukongai. It took only a few dozen steps with shunpo to get to a clearing where there was plenty of space to practice. He took a drink and ate a cake and then sat down to meditate and get all thoughts of his estranged family out of his mind.

Soon his mind cleared and he put his hand on Senbonzakura, feeling her readiness. He drew her out and she seemed to chime with eagerness to do something. Pouring his reiatsu into her he said, almost silently,

"Chire, Senbonzakura." And she dissolved into petals. Noting that she was bursting with energy today, he let her run the show for a while – she was having fun whipping around the trees and seeing how close to the moon she could get before he finally calmed her down and started practicing. He had her rip off a few hundred leaves from the trees and then bounced them around without damaging them, increasing his control as well as hers. He enjoyed watching the pink petals swarming in the wind, surrounding the small green leaves. Finally he gave her permission and the leaves turned into dust before she reluctantly reformed by his side.

"Shush, we'll do bankai training after I practice some kidou," he replied to her high-pitched complaint only his ears could hear. He had been practicing through kidou 90-99 in destructive arts and binding, but was still far from mastering them. Byakuya idly went through the recitations in his mind and then began doing them in earnest, staring at the effects, trying to gauge how much he was improving. He figured even if it was one percent a day, even half a percent a day that was a success. The Kuchiki were nothing if not infinitely patient.

After exhausting himself, he decided that some water and more bean cakes would be in order. Sitting down casually against a tree eating them, he felt his reiatsu flow back into his body his thoughts began to turn back to 6th Division and hoping that Renji wasn't going to cause a mess. Closing his eyes he pushed those thoughts from his mind. If something truly awful were to happen one of the other Captains would end up sending him a note via messenger.

Feeling refreshed he decided to give Senbonzakura a workout to keep her quiet for the next couple of days.

"Bankai, chire Senbonzakura Kageyoshi," he intoned and then commanded her to spread out as far as she could and retrieve some branches from trees. Byakuya then concentrated on finding individual petals and being able to adequately control them. He still could only grasp about half of his bankai to utilize individually. It would move as a mass under his control, but his goal was to be able to contain each blade as he could with his shikai. Senbonzakura had warned him that that could be a century or so away – _patience_.

She finally brought back some branches and one tree. _A tree?_ Marking down that he had to be more specific with commands that involved fetching Byakuya grasped a twig off a branch and broke off one small edge and looked at it with concentration. _This size_. And he released his reiatsu again, pouring his will into hers. He used his will to cut down the branches and tree into exactly the same size and shape as the fragment of wood that he held in his palm. Finally finished he gave the pile a cursory inspection. Only a few seemed to too large or small and he felt Senbonzakura was happy with his control and her destructive capabilities.

He gently put her back in his saya and went to finish off the last of his bean cakes and water and then perhaps try some more kidou before finishing for the evening. Already a very slight lightening of the sky indicated dawn was near. Leaning back against the tree he looked up through its branches at the night sky, the stars starting to fade.

"Hoh, what do we have here? A Shinigami Captain?" a voice growled behind him and Byakuya felt a blade on his throat. Faster than thought he had shunpo'd to the side and stared at his opponents. Arrancar. He looked at the tattoos on their faces, eight high numeros, none of them espada.

"Aizen-sama will be pleased," one said and the rest chorused their approval. Byakuya drew out Senbonzakura and faced them.

"We won't eat you, you will just come with us and serve Aizen-sama," another giggled and Byakuya stared at him, his gray eyes cold. Quickly performing senka, one of the numeros vanished in a cloud of Hollow dust. The other seven stared at where their companion was.

"He was weak," another grinned and the others nodded and started spreading out. Each released their katanas and became hollows once again and Byakuya felt their reiatsu multiply. Byakuya held Senbonzakura in his right hand by his side, patiently waiting for them to finish changing, he noted that it took much longer than bankai, or maybe it was just these lower ones didn't have as much skill.

"Bankai, Senbonzakura Kageyoshi," he intoned and Senbonzakura disappeared again and the petals surrounded him, moving in the wind.

"You are going to die," one of the arrancar said and rushed him, only to be vaporized by Senbonzakura.

"Your arrogance will be your downfall." Byakuya looked at them calmly and the six remaining arrancar held back prudently. Sealing his will with Senbonzakura he covered them with her petals, grinding down into their bodies and waited for the result. Suddenly he felt a sharp pain the middle of his back and glanced to see three of the arrancar surrounding him.

"_Your_ arrogance will get you killed. You think just because we are not Espada we don't know how to use Sonido or duplicates?" one sneered and pulled his claws out of Byakuya's uniform. Blood gushed and Byakuya forced himself to shunpo to a better distance and deflected the rest of the attacks with Senbonzakura. _How bad was the injury?_ It was deep, but it appeared to miss anything vital, nothing to worry about, he thought.

Byakuya dodged another attack and sent Senbonzakura back into the fray when he realized his left leg was no longer holding him up. Trying to put weight on it only caused it to collapse uselessly under him. Quickly shifting all his weight over to the right side he felt the numbness spread up his body.

"Feeling okay, Captain?" the one who clawed him called out and laughed. "You have about another five minutes before the poisons start effecting the other side of your body. Enjoy your last minutes, Captain." The arrancar laughed, but Byakuya only smiled, feeling the poison start to infuse the rest of his body.

"Goukei," he whispered and before everything went dark he saw Senbonzakura surround them and then collapse inwards and knew her satisfied sigh meant that nothing was probably left.

Silence.

Cold.

Water.

Painful movement.

Talking.

Byakuya opened his eyes and stared at the face of an unknown woman looking back down at him. His age. Very short black hair, wide brown eyes. Not a finger would move, with a surge of panic he realized he could not even move his eyes. Something was held under his nose and he passed out.

Awake again.

"We really shouldn't be helping a Shinigami, Mayu," a man's voice said. There was shuffling. "We should have just sent a note about what happened to him."

"He might have died," a woman's voice replied.

"That's not our business, it's going to cause trouble." The irritation was thick in the air.

"The trouble has already found us, Isha's clan was exterminated yesterday. They already know," the woman sighed.

"What? How did they find them?"

"I don't know."

"He's awake."

"Move, Shinji," the woman grumbled and got into Byakuya's line of sight again.

Byakuya tried to speak but realized that his lips were moving but no voice came out.

"I need you to follow my finger with your eyes, please, Taichou-sama," the woman said and pointed her finger and moved it slowly left and right. He followed it carefully.

"Okay, the poison is dissipating out of your system, looks like we got to you soon enough. It'll take a few more days but you'll get better, just stay still. Any movement will circulate the poison, we're trying to draw it out slowly," she smiled and Byakuya blinked and closed his eyes.

"Eh, might as well knock him out during that time or he'll become the atypical nasty patient and try to move. He 'is' a captain," the man muttered and the woman laughed.

"Well, we'll see if he's a stupid captain or not. Let's go get some food, Shinji," the woman said and Byakuya felt their presence disappear. He searched for Senbonzakura and feeling that she was close by was comforted and he fell back asleep.

Byakuya knew some time had passed, but had no idea how much. Just soups and rice being ladled into his mouth and his body washed and wounds being tended. He had vague memories of a man and woman kneeling over him, their hands bright with healing reiatsu and intense expressions. Then came the day where the woman walked in, checked his circulation and numbness and gave a smile.

"Well, I think you can walk. You recovered faster than Shinji thought you would. Must be that enormous reiatsu you have. We washed up your clothes; they are over by the bath. You can bathe if you wish - everything is nearby. We'll be outside," the woman said and closed the door.

Byakuya was silent, staring around the room – it was small with an attached bathhouse and a door leading outside. Questions flitted through his mind, but he decided that those would come after a bath. Entering the bathhouse he saw that the water was already piping hot and after pouring some over his body to get rid of the dirt and sweat first, he then slowly lowered himself into the bath and soaked, feeling himself revive. He found a comb and quickly brushed his hair back and put it in a loose braid, his kenseikan being lost somewhere in or after the battle. He dressed quickly in his shinigami robes and captain's haori and carefully checking Senbonzakura for any problems before wearing her he went out of the bedroom and squinted at the bright light.

"Oi, he's up," the man said and looked at him. "Yup, great, a captain." The man sighed and the woman laughed again.

"I dunno, if he was going to kill us we'd prolly already be dead! Shinji, serve up some breakfast, you bum!"

Byakuya watched their exchange in silence and stared at his surroundings. He was somewhere deep in the forest, and behind him was a small house. Obviously he was in some side quarters, the main residence appeared to be a two story more 'real world' house. How very strange, he had never read about places like these in the Gotei 13 reports. He felt the reiatsu of both of these people and was surprised that it was significant. Shinigami level significant. The man handed him a bowl of rice and another of steaming vegetables.

"Yeah, don't comment on my cooking, it's better than hers!" He gave a quick laugh and the woman grinned and served herself then knelt on a mat to eat after giving Byakuya a cup of water.

"Eat up! Really, he's not a bad cook," she said around a full mouth.

"Gee thanks," the man replied and the woman poked him.

"Uh, I guess introductions are in order. I'm Kai Mayu and he's Kai Shinji."

Byakuya looked at both of them and wondered why they were there in the middle of the forest with so much reiatsu, but decided to be polite instead. "I am Kuchiki Byakuya."

They both stopped eating and stared at each other.

"Shit," the man stammered and the woman choked on her food. "We're screwed."

"Excuse me?" Byakuya said, puzzled and the man and woman appeared deep in thought.

"Um, nothing, Kuchiki-sama. That was just unexpected. Your captain's haori was damaged and so we couldn't make out the lettering on the back of it. Um, Shinji, come with me NOW," she muttered and grabbed the man, dragging him to the front of the house and leaving Byakuya sitting with his food wondering what was going on.

Realizing that whatever happened would be a direct impairment to him finding out what exactly this situation was, he decided to follow them in order to better understand his current predicament.

"Okay, Mayu, this was your great idea to be a good Samaritan, he's nobility, they'll be looking for him, I mean REALLY looking for him," he heard the man Shinji say.

"We could just explain our situation," Mayu started but Shinji cut her off.

"He's nobility, he doesn't care. Not including our own lives, but we just put a lot of people in danger if the Shinigami or the guards find him."

"Don't even think it, Shinji," Mayu's voice went deep with warning.

"Okay okay, but what do you want to do with all the kids?" he asked and Mayu shrugged and there was silence as she thought.

"We'll relocate them to Esi's place, they'll be fine there, the Shinigami have no idea where that is, so they'll just find this place, traces of reiatsu and that's it. Well, and us," Mayu replied soberly and Shinji sighed.

"Remind me never to take your advice again!"

"Well, we always said we'd die for a good cause, right?" They both chortled, but nervously.

"Eh, well, that nobleman's on the other side of the wall listening right now," Shinji laughed and Byakuya gave a start. How could they have known? His reiatsu was suppressed perfectly. He felt like a child being caught stealing candy from the cabinet. Feeling more ashamed than he had a while he walked out with as much dignity as he could muster.

"Eh, it's not a big deal," Shinji said.

"Yeah, don't worry, um, I'm sure that you want to go home and whatnot, but let me give you some stuff that'll get the rest of that poison out of your system, you'll need it for at least two or three more days," she said and went into the room where he had been sleeping and brought out a bunch of herbs.

"Just put these in your tea one or two times a day, Kuchiki-sama, and you'll be all better in no time." Mayu placed the package of herbs in his hand and Byakuya nodded, looking at the cloth wrapped package with interest.

He gave a small bow in appreciation. "Thank you both. Is there anything that I can do for you two?" Again, the looks between the two and then Shinji made to say something but Mayu shook her head slightly at him.

"Nope, we're good, glad that you recovered so quickly, Taichou-sama," Shinji muttered and Mayu pointed to the north.

"Uh, Seireitei is that direction, Kuchiki-sama, we're um, glad to have helped and sorry to make you leave so quickly, but… your fellows aren't too keen on us and we have to pack some stuff up in case they come around," Mayu said quickly and Byakuya opened his mouth to ask some questions, but decided to be polite and say nothing as he had already intruded on their privacy once.

"Again, thank you, if you need anything, please let me know," he bowed and quickly shunpo'd away.

"Yeah, we're screwed," said Mayu. "Get the kids moved now."

...

**Omake for Chance Encounters  
**

"Shinji, is that the same cloth that you use for cooking?"

"Yeah."

"Don't use that when you're tending a patient. Always clean cloths. I know you were never good at the healing stuff, but come on." Mayu rolled her eyes at her husband and he gave her a sheepish look.

"Sorry. Sorry! It was handy. Hey, don't hit me with that!" he exclaimed as Mayu smacked him with a wet rag that was her hand. "See, now you can't use that one cuz it's dirty, right? Ow!"

Driven out of the room by successfully more painful smacks with a small wet cloth Shinji looked up at the night sky, thinking that even when there was a Shinigami Captain laying in his house, the sky still looked the same and the air still felt as cool-night-fresh as usual. Taking a breath he decided to check in on the kids in the main house and see what reports had been brought in from the other people in the Sanctuary.

Mayu kneeled next to the Captain and stared briefly as his pale face and noted that even though his skin looked like silk from a short distance away and she could barely see the pores there was a fine web of scars all over his body. Some had been well healed, but the implication of the damage was staggering, especially as some had scarred further than others, indicating reopening after healing, or maybe no healing. Touching an old scar on her patient's shoulder she wondered if she should try to reheal the skin there or not. Suddenly he moved.

"Hisana?" the man whispered.

"Shh, sleep." She wrung out another cloth and wiped the sweat off his face and he moved his head aside like a petulant child and suddenly opened his eyes.

"Where am I?" Grey eyes bored into hers and she gave a soft smile.

"You're safe and being healed. Sleep." Putting her hand on his forehead she concentrated and he relaxed slowly and his eyelids fluttered closed.


	3. 2: Returning the Favour and Omake

_Continuation of the fic. Renji has invaded and will be here until the end. T rating due to implied violence I suppose.  
_

**Returning the Favour**

As Byakuya shunpo'd towards Seireitei he wondered how long he had been out.

_Four days._

Senbonzakura was whispering in his ear. Four days. His mind raced.

He should be dead.

Who were those people? Their own house, he had sensed more people there.  
How did they heal him? He felt as good as when he left Unohana's care.  
What were they talking about? His 'fellows' didn't like them? Shinigami?  
Were they criminals? Definitely they were hiding something in the house.

He wondered how much of an uproar _his_ house would be in when he arrived.

When he walked in through the gates he was immediately surrounded by servants, guards, family members and various people from Gotei 13. Gritting his teeth he said in his normal, inscrutable manner,

"I will talk about it in the small meeting room after I change my clothes. In 5 minutes." Everyone felt the ice in his voice and backed away, rushing into the small meeting room in the Kuchiki house. Five minutes later on the dot, Kuchiki Byakuya walked through the meeting room shoji resplendent in his fresh clothing and scarf and kenseikan.

"I was attacked by eight arrancar when I went out to train. They all died, but I was poisoned by one of them. Two people came to my aid and cured me and then I returned back here. I will write a report about it to the noble families and to Gotei 13," he said brusquely.

"Who were they?" one of the aged elders asked.

"I don't know, they lived in the forest, not in Rukongai. But they did have abnormal reiatsu to be able to heal me," Byakuya replied and noted that some of the shinigami representatives were looking at each other and quickly slipped out a door.

"This meeting is over," Byakuya said and walked out the door and back to his room. '

Opening the small packet of herbs he decided to follow her directions and poured a small amount into his tea, drinking it quickly. Suddenly his shoji was slammed back and Renji was there staring at his captain with wide, worried eyes. After the initial shock of someone coming into his private quarters so rudely, Byakuya stared at him calmly.

"What happened, Taichou?" Renji asked as Byakuya put down his tea.

"Nothing important."

"Nothing important? You disappeared for four days. Your blood was found all over a clearing along with traces of dead arrancar and that's NOT IMPORTANT!?" Renji thundered and Byakuya gave a small sigh.

"It would have been an inconvenience if I had died, as it is I have not and… how is the division doing, Renji?" Byakuya said and Renji gave a snort.

"They're fine other than being worried sick about their Taichou," he replied and Byakuya nodded.

"I'll stop by as soon as I…" a messenger stopped at the door.

"Lord, I have a note from your personal guards and a message from an anonymous person in Gotei 13." He held up two notes and Byakuya read them. His guards said that they had pulled back from their search and rescue efforts – as he no longer needed searching for or rescuing, but on their way back they met a large group of Division 12 shinigami heading in a different direction. The second paper was written in calligraphy he had never seen before. The message was short, simple and chilling,

"12th has been sent to kill them."

Byakuya stood up and motioned Renji to follow him.

"We have something to do, follow me."

Renji nodded. As soon as they were out of the estate Byakuya started to shunpo, following his prior steps with Renji following him closely. When he arrived at the house where he was healed it appeared that the 12 Division shinigami had already been there and gone as the entire structure was in flames with bodies of men and women scattered on the ground around it. Byakuya searched for any living reiatsu and found one inside the structure.

"Taichou!" Renji yelled when Byakuya threw himself into the burning building. Growling obscenities Renji followed him in.

The smoke was thick in the house. Byakuya held his breath and rubbed his eyes, trying to focus on the reiatsu he had found. It was somewhere upstairs. He sped up the stairs and found the woman and the man who had helped him lying on the landing. The man was dead with no traces of life or reiatsu, but the woman appeared alive with a pulse and some reiatsu trickling out weakly, her arm draped over the dead body of the man. Byakuya picked her up; decided the window was the safest way to exit rather than going through the fire that was already licking up the steps. He blew it out with a low level kidou spell and then jumped through it, landing lightly several meters away. Hearing noise behind him he watched Renji jump through the window as well.

"Renji?"

"Yes, Taichou?" Renji answered.

"Why were you in there?"

"Well, you said to follow you, Taichou." Renji grinned and Byakuya gave him a hard stare and turned his attention to the woman in his arms. He saw that she had a multitude of sword cuts all over her body, not slashes but deep punctures, as if several people had just been – torturing her. He laid her down and searched for some of the worst injuries to heal, two of them were bleeding heavily and he applied some quick healing, but he knew that she needed more than what he could give.

"Renji, I need you to find Captain Unohana and tell her I will need her at my estate immediately. I also need you to set up a meeting tonight with Commander-General Yamamoto," he said.

"Yes, sir," Renji replied and disappeared.

He stared down at her with worry, wondering if it was safe to move her. Mayu's eyes fluttered open and she coughed.

"Shinji," she whispered.

"Don't move or talk," he ordered and she closed her eyes. Gathering her up again he went back to his estate, trying to carefully shunpo so that none of her wounds would get more aggravated.

His guards came as soon as he called for them.

"I'm installing this woman in the second house. No harm is to come to her," he commanded and they nodded and saluted. He brought her to his secondary house that had its own kitchen, bathhouse, study, meditation room and guest room and laid her one of the beds. Just as he was finishing checking all the locks on the door Captain Unohana knocked.

"Kuchiki-Taichou?" she said softly and he motioned her in.

Byakuya gave her a grateful glance. "Thank you for coming, Captain Unohana." He gestured to the girl on the bed and gave a brief summary of what happened.

"That would explain the number of 12th division in my hospital," she said softly.

"They were hurt?" Byakuya asked in shock.

"Yes, at least ten of them quite severely," she replied and started healing the woman on the bed.

"Your consideration in this will not be forgotten, Captain." Byakuya gave a short bow and left the room to change his clothes, again.

When he got back a messenger was at his door offering a note from Commander-General Yamamoto asking him for an audience immediately. Byakuya went to the 1st division as quickly as he could while still maintaining a level of respectability. Knocking at the shoji he heard voices and then Commander-General's rough, "Enter." Byakuya slid the door back and saw that Captain Kurotshuchi was there with Yamamoto, an odd pairing.

"Captain Kuchiki, I am pleased you could make it on short notice," Commander-General Yamamoto said and Byakuya bowed his head, ignoring the 12th division captain. "Are your injuries healed?"

"I am quite fit," Byakuya answered and the Commander-General slowly gave a nod.

Yamamoto looked expectantly over at Mayuri. "Well, I think that the 12th Division captain has something to say to you,"

Mayuri gave a dramatic cough before beginning. "When I first became the 12th Division Captain I was working on experiments to dramatically increase reiatsu, both temporarily and permanently. However, each specimen seemed to react differently and because of that I could not predict what would happen. On some it worked well, on some it killed them. There was no pattern. So, I was ordered," he looked over to Commander-General Yamamoto, "to destroy all my test subjects and forget about the idea. I had used those ants from Rukongai and when I went to exterminate them some of them apparently had heard before about their imminent destruction and had escaped.

"Honestly I did not think that much about it, but soon it became clear that they were propagating somehow and growing in numbers. They have a distinct reiatsu signature, but have since learned how to suppress it so tracking them became more irritating. One of the experiments I did when we captured a few of them indicated that have become more dangerous in numbers - oh and they call themselves the "Rugai" now. They may not have realized it yet, but part of the aftereffects of the treatment was that their reiatsu grows whenever they are around others of their own kind.

"So, whenever something pops up on a scanner I made and the my subordinates monitor, we go out and exterminate them. The 12th has had a section devoted to this for the last hundred years. However, we know that there are many cells of them that have not be tracked down, I doubt they are planning anything extravagant, but with this last fiasco – that one that included yourself, Kuchiki – the fact that their powers have grown so much that they could heal high arrancar wounds, it may be time to strike the finishing blow." Yamamoto nodded in agreement and Mayuri continued.

"So, I heard you brought back a survivor from my Division's little roast. I'll need her for my studies and then we'll exterminate the rest of this failed experiment."

Byakuya gave him a hard stare. "I decline. This woman tried to save my life, I will not hand her over like a piece of meat."

Yamamoto saw the fire in Byakuya's eyes.

"Captain Kurotshuchi, you have plenty of data without this woman. I want a progress report in two weeks on how you plan on finishing the final extermination. Kuchiki-taichou, you may keep that woman if you feel you must, but when all the rest of her kind are dead, she will also be executed. You may determine the method of it. I also give you leave to kill her earlier as you wish," Yamamoto ordered. Byakuya realized that this was a kind concession from the Commander-General when he could have ordered her handed over. Yamamoto stood up and both men bowed and left.

"So, what could I give you that would change your mind, Kuchiki?" Mayuri said, rubbing the bridge of his nose as they both walked out of the division.

"From you? Nothing," Byakuya replied and shunpo'd back to his house.

Byakuya decided he needed to do something for Renji for all his help with this matter and organized a large sake party for whole division with catered food and drinks. He sent over a messenger over so Renji could pick the date and how many people he wanted involved. Byakuya figured that would be something his crazy fukutaichou would enjoy. Then he went to see if Unohana had finished and he found her sitting by Mayu's bed reading a book from the real world, waiting for something.

She smiled when he came in and stood. "Kuchiki-taichou. The woman is doing well. Once I started healing her, she became conscious and actively helped. It was quite interesting, I've never had a patient help so much in the healing or make me feel quite so useless before." Unohana laughed and Byakuya stayed silent for a while looking at the woman on the bed.

"So, she will survive?"

"Oh yes, I predict in one or two days she'll be up and about and in less than a week she'll be back to normal physically," Captain Unohana replied and then her face went dark, "I am afraid that, psychologically, she might not be faring as well. From what I have gathered when I asked her about her condition she had a rather unpleasant experience during and after her husband was being tortured and killed. I gave her some sedatives to get to her sleep, but it will be a consideration, Kuchiki-taichou. People in this state are quite unstable. I urge caution." She sighed. "However, you are here now and I'm sure Isane has had quite enough of dealing with the 12th division members. If you need me further, please let me know, Kuchiki-taichou." With a soft billow of robes, she left and Byakuya sat down next to the bed and stared at Mayu.

Perhaps he should kill her now, it would be more merciful. Yet, he could not do that, basic honour prevented him from raising his blade in that manner. And she was instrumental in saving his life; he had to at least try to do the same for now. Realizing his muscles and mind were telling him that it was now time to relax, he returned to his quarters and fell asleep.

He was awakened by a scratching at his shoji and sat up, pulling his hair back.

"Enter," he said and a servant came in.

"My Lord, we are not sure what to do with the woman that you brought in. Should she be brought meals?" the servant asked and Byakuya realized that perhaps he could have done better to be more specific.

"She is my guest. She is to be treated as such," he replied and the servant nodded and bowed his way out of the room. Looking at the clock, Byakuya realized he had been asleep for almost twelve hours. Getting up he put on a yakuta and decided that while he should foray into some paperwork, today instead would be for relaxing. He went to Hisana's shrine as he did every morning and lit two sticks of incense, silently remembering her laugh.

After eating a light breakfast he went to see how Mayu was doing. He found her sitting up and eating a bowl of rice with a pot of tea by her side. She looked at him when he came in and immediately got out of bed and did a full kowtow at his feet, her forehead touching the tatami mats.

"That is unnecessary, get up."

"Thank you, Kuchiki-sama, for my life. I am indebted to you for it," she whispered as she stood up slowly and returned to the bed.

"I regret that by saving me you put yourself and others at risk," he said slowly and she choked a little on the rice and her eyes filled with tears. She quickly regained composure and nodded.

"Um, well, Shinji and I always knew that it would be our turn one day," she replied and shrugged. "It doesn't make it hurt less, but at least it wasn't a shock."

Byakuya gave her a glance as she was eating. "I have heard a bit about what has been going on with your people, it's not widely known here in Seireitei."

"Really? The way that they've been hunting us Rugai it seems like it's a lot more organized rather than something secret," she said and finished the bowl.

"Rugai?" Byakuya asked, thinking that perhaps Mayuri's intelligence was accurate.

"It's what we call ourselves, the descendants or the ones who absorbed the reiatsu from the original ones," she said and he furrowed his brow. "Um, almost all the original people who were experimented on are dead. But it gets passed down via blood lines or even proximity if the person knows how to pass out the ability that way, that's not really used anymore because some people couldn't handle it, so that's mostly stopped now, now it's much more selective."

"Ah," Byakuya said and she stared at his impassive face, wondering what was going on behind the stony mask.

"Um, do you ever smile, Kuchiki-sama?" Mayu asked and Baykuya's eyes narrowed in anger as hers widened in embarrassment as she realized what she was thinking just flew out of her mouth.

She looked down and hunched her shoulders. "My apologies, I was just wondering because it's a little eerie being with a person who I can't feel anything off of, you keep your reiatsu pretty tightly reined in." Byakuya sighed, disliking where this line of conversation was going.

"I'll check in on you later," he said. "Until then, please feel free to wander around the estate where you wish."

"Thank you, Kuchiki-sama," she said to his quickly retreating back. Mayu knew that she was good at reading reiatsu, but this man seemed totally blank except exactly when he chose. Yet when she and Shinji saw him fight she knew he was powerful. Why was he helping her? She wondered if perhaps this was another one of the experiments by the hateful people in Seireitei, but she just couldn't tell. Giving up on getting answers she laid back down and fell asleep.

The next day Byakuya found her out of bed wrapping a grey yakuta around herself. He coughed to announce his presence.

"Good morning, Kuchiki-sama." She gave a low bow.

He gave her appraising look. "Good morning, Mayu, have you had breakfast yet?" he asked and she shook her head. "Come and have some breakfast with me." She nodded and followed him down the stairs and to a short table surrounded by pillows out in a back garden.

"This is an incredible estate, Kuchiki-sama," she admired as they sat and he inclined his head at the compliment. The servants ran out to prepare the table and put out some steaming bowls of miso soup and started loading each side down with small dishes. Mayu's eyes grew wide as dish after dish came out. Byakuya paid no notice and started deftly using his chopsticks to pick out the food that he enjoyed. Mayu followed his example and dutifully ate one of everything that he ate. Some of it was pretty good, some was amazing, some made her want to regurgitate, but she ate it anyways making the guess that spitting up her food would be an indecent act at a noble's table.

Meanwhile Byakuya never even looked at her until the meal was done, his eyes on a softly bubbling brook that they were sitting next to, he seemed to be avoiding her gaze. Mayu wondered if this was her last meal and if he was going to execute her after this – that seemed plausible after the stories she had heard about the Shinigami. She sighed and then covered her mouth when she realized it was audible.

"Is something wrong?" Byakuya said, his cold gray eyes piercing her.

"Um, no, Kuchiki-sama," she stammered and he frowned.

"I expect honesty here in my house. Being of noble blood I have plenty of experience with people lying, deceiving and other subterfuge and it is something that I cannot and will not tolerate," he said icily and looked at her again. She swallowed, feeling the chill of angry reiatsu flowing out of him.

"Uh, well, I was wondering if you were going to kill me after breakfast, Kuchiki-sama," she muttered and saw a flash of pain cross his eyes before he tamped down on it.

"No," he replied. "I have no intention of killing you after breakfast." Mayu thought on his words for a while.

"When then?" she asked simply. "I cannot believe that whoever was in charge of exterminating the Rugai would allow one to live within Seireitei." Byakuya was impressed by her persistence and insight… and fearlessness.

"When all the other Rugai have been killed," he said shortly and stood up and left to go to his office, leaving Mayu to her thoughts.

Byakuya was surprised he was hurt when Mayu automatically assumed that he was going to kill her. Maybe it just hurt because she was right. He wondered at how they could live with the inevitability of being exterminated like bugs by the Shinigami and then almost laughed when he realized that it was not so different than his own situation. You don't choose what you are born to, you simply accept it and move on becoming stronger, or fold, crumple and die. Neither of them appeared to be the folding and dying types. Putting those thoughts aside he decided he would finish the mercifully small amount of paperwork and then visit his Division when his fukutaichou came by his estate so that his Shinigami could see that their captain was indeed alive and well.

Mayu sat in the garden for another hour; long after the table was cleared. If her death was scheduled after all the Rugai were killed, then they planned on killing all of them soon. She thought about trying to escape and telling her people, but knew that they were as prepared as they could be and would have already gotten word of what happened at her location. The Rugai would do everything that they could to survive while still retaining their honour.

Pausing for a moment she realized that she still didn't know how to read Kuchiki Byakuya, she was staying in his estate and being a burden to him, but he showed no resentment about that, however he showed anger when he felt she wasn't being honest. His bearing was abnormally cold and closed, but she figured that might be a noble thing. Suddenly she felt a finger poke her shoulder.

"Oi," a rough voice said from behind her. She turned to see a broad shinigami with bright red hair and tattoos all over his face and neck and arms. Her eyes opened wide, wondering if he was sent to kill her, but his sword was still sheathed and he was grinning at her.

"I'm Abari Renji, Kuchiki-Taichou's fukutaichou," he said and she smiled involuntarily at his rough greeting and his obvious discomfort at meeting her.

"Sai Mayu, nice to meet you, Renji-san," she said and stood up to give him a bow and he waved it away.

"Uh, ya don't need to be all formal to me or nuffin', thanks though. Uh, have you seen the Captain anywhere?" he asked looking around uncomfortably.

"He was eating and disappeared, I have no idea how to find my way around this place," she replied honestly. Renji gave a laugh.

"You aren't the only one, dang, I need to find him," he growled and she shrugged.

"Well, just let your reiatsu keep pouring off like that and he'll find you," she said and he looked at her in shock and she gave a lopsided smile. She made a motion in front of his body and all of a sudden he realized that the reiatsu that he was unconsciously emitting was being channeled into her hands and was being collected as a dense orange mass.

"Geez, Renji-san, you gotta get control of this or one day you're just gotta go up in a ball of flames," Mayu smirked and gathered up some more before throwing it into the brook and watching it sparkle and then dissipate on the water. "Fire reiatsu, huh?"

"What the hell?" Renji exclaimed and sat down beside her.

"It's a way of getting rid of the excess reiatsu. Everyone has his or her own element, fire, earth, water, wind, you can collect it up and then use the opposite element to dissipate it quickly. The only catch is the person who is collecting it needs to have equal or higher reiatsu," she gave him a smirk and before he realized it he returned it and laughed.

"Hey! You're saying you have as much reiatsu as me?" he said and gave her a mock threatening gaze.

"Yup, that's what I'm saying," she laughed. Renji furrowed his brow and Mayu laughed harder as the tattoo's wiggled and danced.

"Prove it!" he said and she grinned.

"Okay, how do you want to do it?" she queried and he shrugged.

"Hm, I dunno, I guess whoever can uh, create the largest ball of reiatsu," he replied and she nodded.

"Fine, you first then," she said and Renji straightened and started harnessing all his reiatsu and expanding it as far as it could go, spreading the bubble out at least 20 meters in radius.

He grinned. "Beat that!"

She sat and concentrated. Her bubble started and then grew quickly, suddenly Renji realized that the servants were yelling and the blue sheen was starting to spread into the buildings and spill past some of the estate walls.

"Um, Mayu, you won, I really think you should stop," Renji said nervously and she let the bubble pop.

"What's up?" she asked, noting his agitation.

"I think you freaked some people out," Renji replied and suddenly felt a presence behind him.

"Abarai-fukutaichou, what are you doing?" Byakuya's low tones said and Renji cringed and Mayu got up hastily to bow to Byakuya.

"I'm sorry, Taichou, I came here to see you and met Mayu and we started talking and comparing reiatsu levels," he looked down at his tabi.

"Well, obviously she has more," Byakuya said drily, "At any rate, it is time for us to go the barracks, come with me." Renji nodded and gave an apologetic smile to Mayu and left with Byakuya.

Mayu went back to her room and looked through some of the strange books on the bookshelves and decided to read up on some of them. Most of them seemed to be historical information about Seireitei, at least it would be informative. She gave a small laugh at the reiatsu contest with Renji and his shocked look when she threw the reiatsu into the water.

"Renji, please don't put my estate in danger like that again," Byakuya said as they walked slowly towards the barracks.

"I'm sorry, Taichou, I don't think she would have hurt anything," Renji replied contritely.

"I'm not talking of her, I'm talking of you. If you had lost concentration your reiatsu would have exploded, or imploded, either way I would either be replacing my fukutaichou or my estate and thinking of either option does not please me." Byakuya felt Renji blush and lower his head.

"Again, my apologies, Taichou," Renji muttered.

His reception at the division was full of amazed remarks and a lot of staring at the Captain as if he were back from the dead. The girls in his squad squealed and clapped their hands.

"And, I have an announcement! Something almost as amazing as our Captain coming back," Renji called out, getting up on a chair after pushing some of the squad members away from the Captain.

"Kuchiki-taichou has given us a sake party on our time off! So, I'll be putting up a list of dates, you have until the end of today to sign up! Bring friends, family, and a few of 11th Division to make things merry! Food, sake and entertainment, right Taichou?" Renji grinned and Byakuya gave a short nod, feeling out of place in the exuberant environment. A cheer went up and people rushed out to tell everyone that the party of the year was about to happen in the 6th squad barracks.

After Renji had posted the signups and food request list they retreated back to the offices and Renji mercifully locked the shoji behind him. Byakuya looked at his desk and Renji's, they were clean of paperwork. That meant his fukutaichou had actually completed and delivered everything. Amazing.

Renji had made sure to get some of the white dragon tea that Byakuya loved and poured some out carefully, knowing that this ritual was one that his Captain enjoyed immensely.

"Thank you, Renji," Byakuya said and poured Renji a cup. Both of them sipped at the fragrant, bitter tea and Byakuya looked at his vice captain, amazed at his progress since he had known him.

"Taichou," Renji asked, "who exactly is she?" Byakuya put his tea down silently and stared out of a window that overlooked the training grounds.

He decided to give Renji the full version. After he was done Renji just gaped.

"Just kill them all? That's the solution? Why not recruit them?" he asked.

"I am assuming that it is because they have the ability to join reiatsu as well as transfer it, thus making them a liability if they gain too much power," Byakuya replied. "But in the end, the real answers may not ever be known. Seireitei has never been good with quick change." He took another long sip.

"Taichou, that really doesn't seem like it's the right thing to do," Renji said and Byakuya gave a small shrug. "Are you really going to kill her?"

Byakuya's eyes closed. "We will cross that bridge when we come to it, Abarai."

Renji swallowed. "Well, you can count on me, Taichou," he said.

Nodding, the Captain said softly, "I know I can."

And they finished their tea in silence.

Byakuya told Renji he'd be returning to his estate but extended an offer to come by if he was so inclined during the two weeks off. Renji was stunned but managed to make some sort of stammering reply.

Back at the estate Byakuya first went to check on Mayu, she appeared to be sleeping peacefully and he went in to spread an extra blanket over her, as it was supposed to get chilly for the next couple of days. Then he went down to meditate outside of his room and watch the moon pass over the sky.

He was woken in the early morning feeling that something was off in his house and went to investigate. The chill was coming in, typical spring in Soul Society, going from warm to almost freezing. He put on a warm kimono and a haori and thick tabi and walked around his house, making sure everything was secure.

Mayu's room was empty. He reached out to find her reiatsu and caught a glimmer of it on a side garden near the servant's quarters. Quickly padding over to the garden he peered into the darkness to find her. All he saw were trees, rocks, the little stream, and then Mayu, huddled near the stream. She had her fingers in the icy water and appeared to be crying. He silently edged closer and heard her sobbing as if her heart was breaking.

"Shinji," she whispered and touched the water again. Byakuya realized she was still in the thin summer yukata and had no tabi on.

He felt the sorrow coming off her in waves with her reiatsu and it touched him as if it was his own and fresh in his memory, it felt too similar to his pain over Hisana. The loss of a loved one, the ache that never leaves when part of your heart dies. Except Hisana had died peacefully, he realized he could not relate to what it would be like if his spouse had been brutally murdered in front of him. Finally he walked up beside her and put a hand on her head. She looked up at him, her eyes watery.

"Come back inside the house," he said simply and she nodded and stood up. He wrapped her with his haori and when he realized that she wasn't able to walk due to the cold and her injuries, he scooped her up and brought her back to his bedroom, as it was closer than the guesthouse. Sitting next to her on the futon he dried her hair as she tried to choke back her tears.

"I'm sorry, Kuchiki-sama, you shouldn't have been woken up," she sputtered and he shook his head.

"Let me finish drying your hair or you'll get a chill," he said and brushed her hair back.

He flinched when she took his arm and held onto it. No one had touched him except in battle or dressing his wounds since Hisana died. She curled around his arm and knees, grabbing his kimono with one hand and pressing her face into his side.

"Don't leave," she murmured before she passed out. Byakuya looked at the tangle of limbs around him realized that there was no graceful way to extricate himself. He laid his head back against the shoji and fell asleep.

The next day Byakuya awoke early and stared at the woman lying on his lap. Sometime during the night she had repositioned herself so she was curled under his arm and her head was on his thigh. His hand was on her head and he felt the soft hair idly before realizing what he was doing and his hand stopped. _She is not Hisana_.

Mayu's eyes blinked open and she tried to register where she was. She looked down and saw her half open yakuta and then remembered the previous night, but… where was she… looking up she saw Byakuya staring down at her, an unreadable expression on his face. She was in his lap, Mayu realized suddenly and that look he was giving her was readable, it said he did not want her to be here. _Bad, very bad_. She scrambled away from him and immediately went into a kowtow on the ground.

"I'm so sorry, Kuchiki-sama, this will never, ever happen again," she said to the tatami mats and he got up silently and gazed down at her.

"I said you don't have to do that." His voice was toneless, almost angry. "Get dressed or get some rest in your quarters, you had a long night." Byakuya walked into his bathroom and Mayu fled back to her quarters.

…

**Omake for Returning the Favour**

…

"You're joking me, your Taichou gave you a sake party? For as many people as you want?" Ikkaku said, his head glinting with sweat from the workout Renji had interrupted in the 11th Squad barracks.

"Yup, I got it here in his handwriting. And the catering service even came by to confirm. I just have to tell them about how many people are gonna come and how many days the party will go on," Renji grinned and Ikkaku shook his head.

"Do I even wanna know what you did for Kuchiki-taichou to have him give you that? Wait, you two aren't… uh…"  
Renji scowled and elbowed Ikkaku in the stomach, leaving the 3rd seat gasping for air.

"You're really sick sometimes. I helped him help someone. I guess he was grateful."

Ikkaku laughed. "Uh, yeah. Kuchiki-taichou grateful. Whatever. I'll round up the guys here and we'll all be there, so definitely stick our names on the list."

"As much sake as I can drink?" Matsumoto squealed and Renji slowly backed away, a little scared at her exuberance. And then he backed away faster when she reached out to give him a hug; he still had nightmares of almost smothering to death from the last 'happy hug' he got from her.

When he got back to the barracks he was out of breath from verifying that everyone was really coming. Sitting down on his desk he started making up his own list on the approximate number who would be attending the now dubbed 'party of the year.' He smiled at the thought of a five-day party with hundreds of Shinigami pouring through their doors.

Oh shit. How much would it cost when those hundreds of Shinigami poured through the doors, ripped down those doors and did unspeakable acts on those doors, and tables, and chairs, and beds, and desks and… crap. Renji put his head in his hands and groaned. With his head down he saw a small sheet of paper on the edge of his desk with his name carefully written on it, it looked like Kuchiki-Taichou's handwriting. Unfolding it he read:

_Abarai-fukutaichou_

_I assume that the Shinigami from your party will summarily destroy my barracks. Attached to this note are the addresses of three contractors for the rebuilding of said barracks. They have already been notified to bill the Kuchiki family. Please make sure that everything that has been properly taken care of before I return._

_Kuchiki Byakuya_

Thank god.

**To Be Continued**

_If I can finish revision before it's time to go out and party (TGIF!!) I'll post another chapter today. Next up, Renji learns some stuff from Mayu and Mayu learns that Byakuya has a nasty temper.  
_


	4. 3: Student and Teacher and Omake

She trembled at the thought of Byakuya's eyes on her as she left his room; they were so devoid of any emotion. As she awoke she could have sworn he was stroking her hair, but when she opened her eyes, all she felt was the coldness of his gaze and how improper it was to be there.

Mayu knew very little about noble families, but remembered hearing about them from some of the people who had been servants. One of the rules that was written, verbal and just "known" was you never, ever touched nobility. Only close family was allowed to touch them, and even then rarely on skin. Wives were allowed to touch, but never in public. It was, sterile. Implied a level of godhead that they were so high above everyone else that their skin was untouchable. Perhaps silly, but it definitely helped the image.

She wondered what her punishment would be for touching him, no, laying on him, for who knows how long. Slowly she took off her yakuta and put it in the bin one of the servants said was for washing and then put on a warmer kimono she found in a closet. A servant knocked on the shoji quietly and asked if she would like breakfast – she thanked him and accepted. Her breakfast was delivered shortly, but not by the servant, by a large, red haired shinigami.

"Oi, Mayu, you're up!" Renji said. "I got them to make breakfast for two!" He plunked the tray down in front of her, sloshing the miso and sat down opposite.

"Soooo, I have a couple of weeks off, sorta, mostly. I was wondering if you could show me how you do those tricks with your reiatsu, that's always been a failing of mine and I know that the Taichou would appreciate it if I didn't blow up the barracks every time I practiced kidou!" Renji laughed and then a voice behind him made his mouth snap closed audibly.

"It was only a wing of the barracks, but yes, the less damage you do – the better," Byakuya said and both of them stared at him. "I'll be going out to some property outside of Seireitei. I'll be back in the late evening. Renji, please do not burn down my estate while you are here." Renji gulped and nodded. Byakuya looked at Mayu bowing and quickly left.

"They always sneak up like that," Renji commented, his mouth full. "Damn Captains, concealing their reiatsu and popping up to eavesdrop. They all do it." Mayu looked nervous and pushed some of the rice in her mouth.

"What's up with you, I swear you turned green when he showed up," Renji asked and Mayu swallowed.

"I think he's going to kill me, I mean, kill me sooner than I thought he was going to kill me," she said and Renji arched an eyebrow.

"Why?"

"I woke up on his lap today," she admitted and turned bright red.

"Oi…" he said, his eyebrows raising. "Uh, isn't that a good thing, uh, or at least not a bad thing?"

"I don't think so. When I woke up he looked really pissed," she replied. "You're never supposed to touch nobility, and I was on his lap!"

"Eh, if he was going to kill you, he'd have done it already. Trust me, he doesn't hold onto a grudge, uh, he sorta takes care of issues as they come up," Renji coughed. Mayu gave a grin hearing his discomfort at revealing prior knowledge.

Slowly chewing Mayu figured that Renji was probably right. "And yeah, sure I can help out, but what do you need help with exactly?"

"I don't know really. I use some kidou, but it usually misfires. Taichou said it is because I'm not channeling my reiatsu properly, so I think I need to learn how to gather it and release it," he said and she nodded.

"Eh, that's just practice, but yeah, I can help with the basics," she agreed and they chowed down on their food.

They asked a servant where a training area was and she pointed them to an outside area of the estate that was actually beyond the manor walls and enclosed it it's own walls so that there was a double barrier between the manor and the training ground. Mayu sat down with Renji and offered him her hand. He looked at it extended in front of him.

"I'm not going to hurt you, just take my damn hand," she laughed and he put his large, calloused hand in hers.

"Okay, now, I'm going to feed you some reiatsu, feed the same amount back into me," she said and poured a bit of energy into him. He tried to pour the same amount back into her, but knew that instead of pouring a "little" a flood came out. Her eyes widened.

"Alright, uh, that was way too much. Give me the smallest amount that you can give," she said and he tried again. It was less, but not noticeably so.

"Okay, that was about this much," she noted and poured it back into him. He felt an uncomfortable surge, almost like his chest was getting filled with air.

"Now, I assume your kidou is based on reiatsu flow control, which, ermn, sorry Renji, but you don't really have that right now. What we'll do is have you feed me energy and I'll feed it back to you. That way you'll get an idea about how much is how much, however each time you feed some into me you'll try to make it less and less. The feedback I give you will let you know if you're succeeding. I don't think that you know how much "a lot" or "a little" is, so we'll go from teaching you that first."

"Heh, feeding stuff into me, huh? Sounds kinky," grinned Renji and she broke into laughter.

Mayu was surprised at how fast Renji was learning. He was obviously determined to master this and quickly was learning how to channel a "small" and "medium" amount of reiatsu without it spiking noticeably. It took about two hours for him to be able to lower his reiatsu to a normal level and then another two hours for him to be able to raise and lower it upon command. She noted that he had a lot of skill and raw power, but apparently no one had tried to harness it before, just letting him figure it out on his own.

Their stomachs gurgled almost in unison and they grinned at each other, it sounded like lunchtime. While they were eating it, Renji started asking questions.

"So, where are ya from, Mayu, I mean... originally?" Renji asked.

Mayu looked up took a breath. "I was born of a woman who had been given been given Rugai powers and an original Rugai man, but children are sorta shared in the Rugai. They're given away at birth to a different clan and raised there. It is done to protect the child and make sure that each child is raised knowing that there are a multitude of people to rely on.

"One of the primary goals of the Rugai is to save the children, although that isn't always possible since the children are usually targets first. I grew up all over Soul Society, the deserts in the far west, the forests here and some of the beach areas in the north. I've never really be to Rukongai much because of my reiatsu levels, they're afraid it would give me away. Instead they send people with lower reiatsu or who can totally suppress it to get stuff from there. Then I met Shinji and we started our own Sanctuary for kids and…" Mayu stopped, thinking of her dead husband and the Shinigami who murdered him. The ache was still clear and Renji felt the waves of pain washing off of her.

"I'm sorry," he murmured and kicked himself for bringing up the topic. She wiped away her tears and gave a weak smile.

"Well, we knew it would happen eventually, but we always figured if we were to be killed it would have been together, but it wasn't together. I'm still here," she said sadly. "But the other thing that the Rugai believes in is no matter what, even if we are exterminated, it was meant to be. Every event was meant to move things forward, so while I may not like it very much, perhaps there was a purpose in the long run. I never thought I would be owing a Shinigami, though." She gave a shrug and put a piece of sushi into her mouth to avoid getting worked up.

Renji frowned. "Owing?"

"Yeah, Kuchiki-sama saved my life. I know I would have died if he had left me there. I have a debt to him now. Probably the first Rugai to ever have a debt to a Shinigami."

"Debt?"

"Eh, it's sorta complicated, but let's just say I gotta pay it back," Mayu shrugged and twisted her mouth into a sort-of smile. "But, even that's gotta have a reason for being, just will take some time to figure it out."

"That's pretty deep. I never thought much about that stuff. I've just always believed that friends were the lifeblood of every person. Live for 'em, die for 'em, do what you have to do to protect them. Try to make 'em happy, comfort them when they're sad. If you had a couple of good friends and were a good friend back, you had a pretty good life," he said and Mayu smiled.

"I bet you're a good friend," she commented and he grinned.

"Until ya piss me off, yeah! Hurry up; I want to get to the next stage. Uh, wait, what is the next stage?" Renji asked and Mayu thought about it for a second.

"The next stage will be you giving a low flow of reiatsu and then learning to build it and decrease it. Instead of these one shot deals it'll be maintained reiatsu over the period of a few seconds, and then later a few minutes. This'll also teach you good reiatsu suppression as well as reiatsu control." Renji nodded, looking a bit boyish in his eagerness to learn.

After lunch they went back to the training area and started practicing more. By the time the sun started setting Renji had almost gotten the hang of it. He tried out some of the kidou destructive arts and was amazed at how much more powerful they had become.

"Okay, I dunno what that big crash thing that you just did was, but I think you're releasing reiatsu too soon," Mayu said and Renji frowned. "How does it work?"

"You say the incantation, then you say the spell name and then it blasts it all to hell," Renji said and Mayu giggled.

"Okay, during the incantation part, but before the blasting to hell part start gathering that reiatsu inside you. Hold it in your center like where you feel it when I push reiatsu back into you. Then, when you say the spell name, release it and let it do its thing." Renji tried again, this time with a much bigger effect.

"Woah," Renji gasped and Mayu nodded.

"Yeah, I think ya got it now. More reiatsu, bigger boom. Uh, don't mess it up though with that much reiatsu because if you do you'll really be a load of hurt," she said.

"So, what do you do with reiatsu?" Renji asked, turning around. Mayu shrugged.

"A lot of things, I guess. We use it for healing a lot, starting fires, uh, playing around? Sometimes if a big job needs to be done we'll all band together to do it, like dig out part of a cave. Nothing as sophisticated as the things I've seen here. The elders can do more than me," she replied.

"Well, show me," he said and she shrugged.

"Uh, it's sorta hard to show healing stuff when a person isn't… holy shit, Renji-san," she exclaimed as he drew Zabimaru and cut his arm deeply. She ran over to him and quickly applied her reiatsu, healing his arm in a few seconds.

"Okay, so you can heal, can you attack someone?" he asked and she stared at him.

"Attack someone?" She looked at him blankly.

"Yeah, like hitting someone with reiatsu!" Renji said and she shook her head and then thought about it.

"Eh, maybe. I don't though. Another thing with my people, no one but our Elders use reiatsu offensively, ever. Ever. Like ever ever. That's drummed into us while we're still in our mothers' wombs. And the fact that it's punishable by death is a good incentive not to as well. I think they figured that the race would last longer if they weren't a bunch of fighters and a threat to Seireitei. I've never used reiatsu against someone," she said. Renji sighed.

"Okay, then, what can you do against the training ground, like right here?" he asked and she gave a grin.

"Stand at the edge there," she said and concentrated. Her reiatsu spilled over onto part of the field and then grew in height. She concentrated and smashed it down into the ground.

"Holy shit," Renji breathed. Mayu had depressed the area a good meter into the ground. The amount of force to cause that, he thought, was huge.

"Hey, you can use that uh… zapping spell now," Mayu commented. "You can just aim on that edge that's compressed in. If you pour enough reiatsu into it you can zap a good distance, if you want to see how well you're doing you can just see how deeply the hole is bored!"

"Cool," said Renji and started working on his white lightning kidou. As she watched she was amazed at all the tools that shinigami had in their arsenal. While some of the people seemed sort of unpolished in reiatsu control, it was really amazing. Part of her felt that she was betraying her people by even thinking that, another part pointed out that this probably wasn't a secret from the Rugai Elders. What was even more bizarre, she thought was that the Shinigami seemed like, mostly, normal people.

He kept misfiring the spell and Mayu stopped him.

"You're doing it too early again. If you aren't gonna say all that stuff before, collect the reiatsu quicker while you say the name, then when you are at that last syllable, push it out of you harder, concentrate on what you want you reiatsu to do. Remember, reiatsu can do a lotta stuff besides go into that spell. It can go into the air, or explode, or end up healing some injury, you have to really 'tell' it what to do and the more forcefully you tell it, and the more reiatsu you have, the better it'll do what you want it to do," she explained and Renji nodded and concentrated. The next blast went through the side and they saw it set a tree on fire at least half a kilometer away.

"Yeah!" Renji cheered and Mayu gave him a clap on the back.

"It looks like you've been busy while I've been out," Byakuya said from behind them. They turned to see the captain staring at them both and quickly Mayu and Renji went into a low bow.

"Taichou, I hope all went well," Renji said.

"Kuchiki-sama," whispered Mayu to the ground.

"Abarai, Mayu, I'll be taking my dinner in my quarters tonight, I have a lot of paperwork to do, I will see you both in the morning. Abarai, if you wish to stay here there is an extra bedroom in the house where Mayu is staying," Byakuya said and Renji gaped at him as his Captain turned around and returned back to the house without glancing back.

Renji elbowed Mayu.

"He's gone, you can stop bowing now," he muttered and she stood up, rubbing her arms. "I gotta go back to the barracks for a while and make sure everything is done there, wanna have dinner together when I come back?" Mayu nodded and Renji shunpo'd back to the barracks and Mayu walked back to her room.

She looked over some of the items in the room, things that she never noticed. It was plain and sparsely furnished, like the rest of the house. Obviously Kuchiki-sama didn't flaunt his wealth at all. However, everything from the shoji to the tatami to the chairs was of the absolute highest quality and placed in absolute harmony to the season and the direction. Perfection, she thought, Kuchiki-sama was a perfectionist.

She went through the dresser next. The lady who had showed her the room said that she could find plenty of extra clothes in there and just to pick out what she wanted. She looked through all the hanging kimono, yukata and hakama and then opened some of the drawers below. There were more kimono folded carefully. Some of them were beautiful, she thought it was a pity that they weren't hung up, so she chose a few and carefully hung them in the large dresser. One of them caught her eye immediately. It was gorgeous light pink silk kimono with green blossoms and an obi to match. It was a casual kimono, but elegant. She slipped it on and it fit perfectly. She was looking at the kimono's symbols in the mirror when Renji came in.

"Woah, nice kimono," he commented, his arms full of paperwork.

"Yeah, I found it in the closet. Kuchiki-sama may be a minimalist, but what is here is just gorgeous! You think it's okay to wear it?" she asked.

Renji shrugged and looked appreciatively at the kimono. Must have cost a fortune. "I dunno. Did he say that you could?"

"The woman who showed me around the room and got me food said I could."

Renji gave a noncommittal nod. "Eh, s'ok then, I mean it _is_ a guest house. Prolly just fancy stuff in case the guests mess up their own fancy stuff. Now, food, I need food, woman."

"You get some food and I gotta find something to put under this, I can feel how cold is it out there," Mayu replied.

Renji went to find a servant and Mayu slipped on a juban and wrapped the kimono around it. She went to find Renji and as she was walking down the stairs he popped out and yelled,

"BOO!"

She shrieked and almost tripped and fell down the stairs, but he ran up and caught her. Renji gave her a smirk, "Gotcha. Your face was priceless." And then he gave a chuckle. And then she gave a snort and a giggle. Finally he couldn't hold it in and fell over laughing and soon the two of rolling on the stairs and holding their sides.

"Uh, looks like you've gotten better with that reiatsu control," she gasped and tried to catch her breath, wiping her eyes.

"Yeah, it freaked the third seat out that I finally have grasped some kidou concepts. Really it's thanks to you, Mayu," he said sincerely.

"Eh, you had it in you, just needed a guiding hand," she replied and he grinned again.

"As I said before, kinky," he laughed. "I got some of his people to grab us some food and I said we'd be out in the back area, or is that the front area, whatever, near a waterfall."

It was in an area of the house where she hadn't been before and a gorgeous part of the garden. The servants had already laid out the table and the two knelt and started eating and Renji was drinking copious amounts of expensive sake.

"So, what about you, Renji? Where did you come from?" Mayu asked.

"Eh, I grew up in Rukongai, a bad district, the 78th. Met a close friend there, she became a sister to the Taichou later on. We both went to the academy together. Rukongai was tough, but not as tough as it sounds like you had it. We lost a lot of friends, too. Then she became part of Taichou's family when we were in the academy and I became part of the squads a few years later. I went from the 5th to the 11th to the 6th, each time going up a bit in rank. I dunno, now I am where I am. I don't think the Taichou particularly likes me, especially since I tried to kill him a few months ago – I didn't even come close, but he has really helped me grow. I owe him a lot," Renji said between bites, slightly slurring his words and stopping between sentences due to the high quality sake that he had consumed.

"You tried to kill him?" Mayu gasped.

"Uh, his sister, my friend, was gonna to be put to death. I wanted to save her, but he wanted to obey Seireitei and so we fought. I was way too weak and shouldn't have ever thought about it, but I think I made an impression, although I didn't leave a mark on him," Renji said ruefully. "As it ended up, it was all a huge farce. Three captains had betrayed us and all the orders for my friend's death were fake; it was a rough time. Taichou coulda demoted me or at least moved me to a different squad, or prosecuted me, but it was all okay after that, really odd."

"Hrmn," Mayu said, "it isn't really. You were duty bound and he was duty bound, I think he probably respected you more for that." Renji took a bite and nodded.

"Yeah, that's possible."  
They kept eating and then cleared up the table and put it all in a pile for the servants since they had no idea where the kitchen was. Renji hopped up to the top of the artificial hill and beckoned Mayu up.

"You won't believe how the moon looks here," he said and she clambered up.

"Wow," she said and they stared at the moon. It was a totally clear night and the stars were almost eclipsed by the light shining down. Renji felt the lightness of head caused by the sake and stared at Mayu. Such a woman, he thought, strong and able to do so much, due to be killed soon, but didn't seem to be too phased by it.

He knew he was attracted to her physically but that never had made a huge difference in his life unless he was looking for a quick lay, it was attitude, as always. He never cared what a woman looked like; they had to be fun to be around and willing to challenge him. It's why Rukia attracted him, but he knew that that would never happen and was more than willing to be best friends. Renji gave a smirk thinking that his pickiness in personality was probably why he hadn't had a serious relationship in decades. However, with Mayu he felt a connection, something deeper. He put his hand out on hers and felt her stiffen slightly.

"Uh, Renji," she asked.

"Mayu," he started.

"Renji, we've shared a lot of reiatsu and if you haven't done that before you may be feeling… feelings that aren't going to be there tomorrow," she said looking at him worriedly.

"I think they will be there tomorrow," he said and brought his mouth down on hers. He felt her surprise and then felt her struggling to get away. Before he knew it he had pinned her to the ground and she was squirming under him.

"Renji, stop!" Mayu said, trying to get free, but he was too strong and too large. She knew that he was on a reiatsu high, but that didn't help her now. She closed her eyes and saw the dozen Shinigami who raped her as they beat Shinji, his eyes suffering as he heard her scream. She went limp in Renji's grasp. Suddenly realizing what he was doing Renji stared at her, got control of himself and stood up shakily, feeling embarrassed and quickly disappeared into the night.

Breathing heavily for a few minutes Mayu tried to rewrap her kimono around herself, but her fingers were shaking too badly, so she made due with just loosely wrapping it over the juban and knotting the obi. Walking through the gardens she started back to the guesthouse when she heard a movement behind her, she turned and stared at Byakuya who was looking down at her.

"Where did you get that kimono?" he asked, frostily.

"The bedroom, Kuchiki-sam…" she began, but his hand flew out and he slapped her across the face – hard.

"That is Hisana's kimono and you have no right to wear it, much less abuse it like that. No one has the right to touch anything of Hisana's, ever," Byakuya said, feeling a cold red rage enter him. He had seen the pink figure wandering the garden and for a few minutes thought it was Hisana, his heart jumped. These last fifty years had been a dream. But then he got closer and saw it was Mayu. His heart went dark, feeling tricked.

Mayu stared up at him as his hand slashed down again on the other side of her face. She tasted blood.

"Take it off," Byakuya said quietly, the soft timbre of his voice, his placid face and the death in his eyes never changing. Mayu fumbled with the obi, trying frantically to get it off, her fingers slipping and tears spilling from her eyes.

"If you won't take it off, let me help you," Byakuya growled and grabbed the neckline of the kimono and lifted her partially off her feet. He drew Senbonzakura and systematically began shredding it off of her. Soon blood started seeping through the juban where the sword had cut too deep.

"How dare you disrespect my wife," Byakuya snarled and slashed down Senbonzakura again and dropped her to the ground. Blood spattered on the grass and Mayu put her arms up to protect her face. He brought his foot down hard, feeling ribs crack and heard her cry out. Rage filling him entirely he swung his sword carelessly at her form, ignoring Senbonzakura's protests, slashing blindly because of the tears that stung his eyes.

"You will die for this," he said and Mayu let out a sob, not knowing exactly what was happening, but knowing that she did something horrible.

"Chire," Byakuya whispered and Senbonzakura blossomed. Suddenly his hands were bound behind him. A binding spell. He broke it easily, but looked down and saw a sword at his throat digging in ever so slightly. Zabimaru.

"Don't move, Taichou. I need you to wake up from this. I don't know what is wrong with you, but you need to stop now, Taichou," Renji said and Byakuya looked at him with a blank stare.

"You're stronger now, Renji, do you think you can kill me?" he sneered and met the man's gaze, seeing the fear in his fukutaichou's face.

"Why are you doing this, Taichou?" Renji asked. He stared at his Captain, this was not the man he knew. Byakuya's eyes were blazing and his hair hung in strands around his face. He was baring his teeth like an animal and Renji was briefly reminded of Zaraki-taichou.

"None of your business, brat," Byakuya growled and started to move, but Renji pushed Zabimaru closer into his throat.

"That was Hisana's kimono?" Renji guessed. Hisana was the only thing that could get this man worked up. "Taichou, she didn't do anything. Some of Hisana's clothing was left in the bedroom. Taichou, Hisana is dead. You are not a person who would do this type of thing. You are not a shinigami who would kill an innocent person." There was still the rage and anger in Byakuya's face and flooding out of his reiatsu. Renji gritted his teeth and prepared for more drastic action.

"What would Hisana say?" he whispered, hoping that that wasn't going to far.

_What would Hisana say?_

Hisana would give her fancy kimonos to any guttersnipe she found adorable. She would hand out sweets and money to the poorest people. She never cared much for material things, but loved beauty, loved making people happy. He almost felt Hisana's eyes critically on him as he stared down at his handiwork, blood pooling around Mayu as she shivered in a heap on the ground. Oh gods.

Renji felt the reiatsu drain out of his Captain and removed Zabimaru from Byakuya's throat, noting the thin line of blood that was drawn. Renji looked again to make sure Byakuya was okay and in control of himself again. He saw the confusion in his Captain's eyes, but looking at the body at their feet he knew he had more pressing matters.

"I'm taking her, Taichou."

…

**Omake for Student and Teacher**

…

Byakuya felt an inward cringe when he saw all the family members of the first estate lined up to greet him, dressed in their best and most formal clothing. Pulling each name and title out of his brain he addressed them all, making dull and benign comments to each one. Invariably after the pleasantries were done came the requests for favours.

Every sentence that seemed to come out of their mouths included 'can I', 'may I', 'could you', 'will you', 'I need' or 'you have'.

Kuchiki-sama can I beg a recommendation for my son to get into the Shinigami Academy?  
_No, your son is an idiot with no talent and would single-handedly bring down the entire honourable institution._

Kuchiki-sama may I have your permission to increase taxes on my property so that I can better take care of my family?  
_Of course you need to increase taxes. Your eight mistresses and taste for the best blackmarket goods needs financing._

Kuchiki-sama could you please talk to the Shihoun family so that I can marry this one? Here, looked at her picture!  
_Are you ignorant? Your father is that woman's brother. She's your aunt! Then again, at this rate maybe it'll improve the Kuchiki bloodline._

Kuchiki-sama will you grant us some leniency on the paperwork deadlines you outlined?  
_Yes, sitting here and sipping tea, eating and sleeping takes up far too much of your time. You need extra weeks in order to doctor the numbers appropriately; of course you can have more time._

Kuchiki-sama I need more help here at the estate.  
_More help? You have _fifty people_ serving twelve. The servant's quarters make up more than two thirds of your estate! Do you need a different servant to place each grain of rice in your mouth and then help you chew?_

Kuchiki-sama you have so much dignity and poise and grace.  
_Get away from me, you old hag. Yes, I see you trying to touch my sleeve each time we pass in the hallway. Don't give me that lip licking leer again, or at least shave your chin before you do._

Of course, the head of the fine and noble Kuchiki family never said any of those things out loud. He just ardently wished he could.


	5. 4: Hitoramizu and Omake

Renji gathered Mayu up and shunpo'd back to the guesthouse, not knowing where else to put her. He sent a courier out to get someone from the fourth division and put some towels on the mattress, laying her down carefully wincing at some of the gashes she had from Senbonzakura. He knew what those felt like. Stripping off the remains of the kimono and juban, he stared at her mutilated body and old scars. Renji sighed and went to go heat some water from the guesthouse kitchen. When he got back she was partially conscious but he saw that her eyes were almost swollen shut and her lips were bleeding. While he carefully washed her face first, she started talking deliriously.

"Shinji?" she cried over and over. She grabbed Renji's hand.

"Shinji, don't leave," she pleaded, feeling the warm male hand in hers. She heard a voice reply.

"I'm not going anywhere, Mayu, just sleep."  
Renji sighed and wondered what he had been thinking. The woman had been cut to ribbons and her husband killed before her eyes a few days ago and he had tried get it on with her? He sucked. He knew if Rukia ever found out about this he would be beaten senseless.

Isane came from 4th Division, rubbing the sleep from her eyes, but focusing when she saw the injured woman on the bed.

"Renji! What happened?" she exclaimed and got out her kit.

"Taichou happened, but keep it quiet, okay?" Renji whispered and Isane nodded and started healing.

"Some of these cuts are bad, these are meant for slow death – she's lost so much blood," Isane sighed, working harder.

"Can I help at all?" he asked and she shook her head.

"I'm okay, but keep her with us," Isane replied, perspiration on her brow.

"Eh?" he asked and Isane shot him a baleful look.

"Patients need someone to talk to them, to keep them here and wanting to live. Believe it or not it keeps them alive!" Isane sounded irritated. For two hours they sat there and Renji moved from holding Mayu's hand to cradling her head when Isane started muttering curses under her breath as she felt Mayu's reiatsu start to fall. He bent over and whispered in Mayu's ear,

"Remember, everything has a purpose, you're meant to still be here."

Finally the initial stage of healing was done and Insane draped a blanket over her to keep out the chill of the night. Renji stared at Isane who looked totally drained. He went downstairs to brew some tea and served it to her. She accepted it gratefully, downing her cup in one gulp and after he poured her some more Renji decided that maybe he could find some food too. He searched for leftovers and found some neatly packed in a box and gave them to her.

"Mmn, thanks," she said and Renji nodded. When she was done eating she stared at the woman on the bed for a few moments before giving a glance at Renji who didn't meet her gaze.

"Is she going to live?"

Isane pursed her lips. "Probably, so who is she?"

"Uh, some person who saved Taichou's life when he was attacked by Arrancar, but apparently her people are set to be destroyed by Seireitei because of a botched experiment that that Mayuri freak did. Short version." Renji relayed and Isane sipped at her tea.

"Uh, so if she saved his life, why is she here and why did he try to kill her?" she asked.

Renji coughed a little. "I think she was wearing one of Taichou's dead wife's kimonos, I dunno though. He went totally berserk. I was coming back to… uh… check on her and saw him just freaking out. So did a binding spell and almost cut his head off to get him to stop. Oh crap!" Renji exclaimed and Isane looked at him with wide eyes.

"What?"

"Uh, maybe you should check on Taichou as well, I know I cut him before he came to his senses."

Isane gave a quick nod and Renji led her towards to where he believed the main rooms were. He faintly remembered the location.

"This place is really huge," Isane gaped in wonder.

"Yeah, it is," Renji agreed and finally gave up and searched for Byakuya's reiatsu instead and found it in the garden where he and Mayu had dinner. They both shunpo'd to the garden and Renji saw Byakuya sitting up against a tree with Senbonzakura in his hand. Renji motioned Isane to stay back and cautiously approached his Captain, his left hand on his saya just in case Byakuya was going to end up trying to shred him. As he came closer he saw the man's head incline towards him.

Walking carefully to Byakuya side he stared down at his captain and saw that Byakuya had healed his own wounds, although the blood was still fresh on his clothing. Renji gave a subtle thumbs up to Isane and she gave a sigh and left.

"Uh, Taichou, are you alright?" Renji asked and Byakuya stared at him, his eyes not angry, just empty.

Eyes staring past his fukutaichou, Byakuya seemed to barely register he was there. "Renji, is she going to live?"

"Isane said probably," Renji replied honestly. Byakuya turned to look at the waterfall in silence and Renji didn't know what to say.

"Uh, I guess I'll stay with her," Renji muttered. Byakuya just nodded and Renji headed back to the guesthouse.

Byakuya glanced over at Senbonzakura who was now silent and disapproving.

_That was a poor reason to use me._

He had barely heard her words after the incident; he had barely felt the blood dripping down his neck. It was only when he went to splash some water on his face when he saw the gouge that Zabimaru had left on his throat. It was quickly healed and he traced Mayu's old reiatsu back to the garden and sat down near it so he could feel her strange presence. Her reiatsu was like none he had experienced before, it was tenuous, like the wind, but so strong and crisp and clean. Unfettered. Like Hisana's, but Hisana's was so weak and fluttered as if dying. Wondering what he had become since her death and lost in memories he only could barely register when Renji came up to see how he was doing.

_Do you loathe yourself?_

Sometimes he just wanted to smack Senbonzakura, but he knew that she missed Hisana as much as he did and that she honoured Hisana's memory greatly. What he had done was not honouring a memory, it was stupid, brutal rage and jealousy and loneliness and pain. He gritted his teeth, it had been so long since any of those emotions came up, why did they now? Those emotions were gone, long gone, he had thought. The emptiness remained, but – he had learned to live with emptiness. Now the emptiness was filling up again. He cursed his lack of control. Standing, he went back to his bedroom, knowing that sleep was not going to come again tonight.

Renji went back to the guesthouse, confused. He had never seen his Captain like that, was the memory of his wife that painful? Bowing his head, he realized that maybe he understood that type of loss, just a little. Climbing the stairs to Mayu's room he saw that she was awake and trying to move around.

"Don't move," Renji said and she turned at the sound of his voice. "Your wounds are pretty serious, don't move around too much." She lay back down. Renji pulled up a chair and sat down beside her.

"Mayu, this is a crappy time to say stuff like this, but, damn, I'm really sorry about after the dinner and all that," he apologized and she gave a slight grin.

"It's okay. Um, you obviously haven't shared a lot of reiatsu with anyone before. That's sorta what happens if you share a lot. It's temporary, but can be sorta strong. Now you know," she shrugged and touched the bandages over her eyes.

"Keep them on for a few more hours," Renji commented, looking at the list of instructions given to him by Isane. She let go of the bandages and listened to the early morning birds.

"What happened?" she asked and Renji took a breath.

"Uh, what do you remember?" he replied and she shrugged.

"I remember what happened between us, and then I was going back to this room and then I remember Kuchiki-sama being really angry. I don't remember much, just the look in his eyes."

"Yeah, he was pretty angry about his wife's kimono you were wearing, but I came back before he got too out of control," Renji said uncomfortably.

"You stopped him?" she wondered and he nodded, then realized she couldn't see the motion and grunted an affirmative.

"Isn't he going to punish you?" she worried.

"I don't think so. Uh, he got a little crazy, but I think he's okay now. He's really sensitive about his dead wife." She made a noise of understanding.

"Renji, could you do something for me? Well, other than getting me back here and healed and all that," she asked and gave a grin. Renji returned it.

"Sure, whatcha need?"

"If you see Kuchiki-sama today could you tell him I'm sorry," she said slowly and Renji gave a non-committal grunt.

"Why should _you_ be apologizing?"

"Because even though he did all this stuff to me, I think that by wearing the kimono I probably hurt him worse. When you hurt someone, whether it's intentional or not, you should usually apologize." Renji grunted again, it seemed like a poor reason.

"Yeah, I'll tell him, though you should get some sleep now. You aren't healed yet, so, get healed. I need your help with a few kidou spells and I can't get your help when you're on your flat on your back."

She laughed as he walked out the door. "Now who's sounding kinky?"

Rather than going to sleep he decided to actually finish some of the division's paperwork and get a handle on everything before the Captain's meetings that were coming up later in the week. A servant brought him some ink and a brush and he started the task of reading and approving or disapproving all these stupid minutiae that had to be done every day. He usually got some of the paperwork for various squad members who needed reviews and occasionally helped with a bit of the Captain's paperwork that seemed to overflow onto his desk, but he had no idea Byakuya had to deal with so much else.

The cost analysis of the squad, the day by day progress reports as well as the daily review of all the previous progress reports from the weeks before and finding all the inconsistencies, then review and write on all the changes that were due to happen in Seireitei and write lengthy missives about current procedural changes. Then came the weekly reviews of the seated officers, some to be posted, some to be filed, some to be sent to other captains, some just to the Commander-General. He felt his head hurt before he was even half way finished through the pile.

Seven hours later he was done and had a throbbing headache. He decided to go up to see what Mayu was doing and maybe to sneak some of her painkillers that Isane left. When he entered the room he saw that she had removed the bandages and was looking at various cuts.

"Mayu? What the hell? Don't do that!" Renji yelled and she stared at him in surprise.

"Eh, it's okay, I finished healing them myself, really it's okay," she said and showed him her arm that previously had been slashed, just faint impressions remained.

"Woah, you're good," he said, staring. He never saw wounds heal that fast, even by Captain Unohana herself.

"Heh, yeah, well, it's what I used to do. I was gonna go and take a bath and whatnot, a sorta long bath. Umm, wanna practice in about two hours?" she asked and he stared at her. She was "dying" about twelve hours ago and now she was asking if he wanted to do some reiatsu practice. Really unreal, maybe this is the stuff that scared the Gotei so much that they wanted to kill them off.

"Uh yeah, that'd be perfect, I gotta go deliver a bunch of stuff and check up on the division first and then I'll be back." Renji ran off to pick up the paperwork and then track down his Captain.

After getting the stack of papers, Renji followed the reiatsu trail to a small office and knocked.

"Enter," came the cool voice of his Captain. Renji opened the shoji and gave a bow.

"Taichou," he said and Byakuya didn't look up from some ledgers he was examining. "I was wondering if you needed me to do anything in the Divisions while I'm there, I have to drop some stuff off."  
Byakuya turned his head to look at Renji.

"Thank you, but no," he said and turned back to look at another page, making a mark beside a questionable number.

"Oh, uh," Renji stammered uncomfortably, "I told Mayu I'd relay a message for her." Byakuya's brush stopped over the page and his whole body froze.

"And it is?" he asked, his voice totally devoid of emotion.

"That she is sorry," Renji said and left quickly, not able to deal with his Captain's icy attitude for much longer. Mentally reviewing the to-do list in his head: he had to get some fresh clothes, deliver all the paperwork, check the division, get the 3rd and 4th seat to prepare for the party that was going to happen in a few days, and maybe some extra things if he had time. All in two hours.

Byakuya sat still after Renji left, not even noticing the drip of ink that worked its way from his brush onto the tabletop.

_She was sorry?_

What in the world could she be sorry for? He wondered if she pitied him, that left a bad taste in his mouth and she did not seem like a person who pitied anyone. Was it meant to be a sarcastic comment? He doubted that as well. He could go ask her, but asking her meant that he had to be close to her. Sighing, Byakuya decided he would deal with that later and instead made some lists about the properties that still needed to be visited and the problems he suspected that they were having.

Mayu lay in the tub, soaking after washing. This was really luxurious. She felt some twinges where her wounds hadn't fully healed and fixed them quickly in the steaming bath. She wished Shinji was there to enjoy it with her and brought his wide, handsome face to her memory. He was a good husband and a loving man – and a Rugai Elder.

While they had no children they did have a few wonderful years together. She remembered when she was young and he taught her how to use her reiatsu and control it and heal people. She remembered when they were married and the delight in his eyes, marred only slightly by the sadness because the Shinigami had killed the rest of his close family the day before. She remembered his face as he used his power offensively, something only he and a few other Rugai were ever allowed to do. She remembered his hands as they cupped her cheeks and his eyes as they looked down at her, showing nothing but caring, affection and love. A few tears leaked out, but she counted her blessings that she was able to have those memories, she suspected that they were better memories than what Kuchiki-sama had. After drying her hair she looked in the closet again and decided that just a nice plain kimono would be safe today. As she was tying a very thin obi around her waist she hear steps behind her and turned.

Byakuya watched her choose a kimono, obviously staying away from any of the ones that could have belonged to Hisana. He shuffled and Mayu turned around, her eyes wide and for a second, a flash of fear which she quickly tamped down on and smiled at him.

"Good, er, afternoon Kuchiki-sama," she said and gave a bow. Byakuya walked into the room and made a note of the bandages on the floor. She had obviously finished the healing herself and was looking relatively healthy, albeit pale.

"Sit, Mayu," he said and then inwardly winced at his brusqueness. She sat down at the table and he sat opposite her. Despite herself, she was reminded what an incredible looking man this was in front of her as he settled into the chair. She had mentioned it to Shinji when they were healing him in their house and he had laughed, never one to be jealous.

"Well, if you like that type," telling her that she was free to bathe him all she wanted.

His features seemed to be molded like a porcelain doll, but stronger. His cheeks and chin defined and his skin was pale, but healthy and smooth. His hands were always graceful and his movements dignified. She knew that she must look like a tromping elephant next to the way he glided around.

"Are you feeling better, Kuchiki-sama?" she asked politely and wondered what he was doing there. She felt no negative reiatsu coming off of him, but she had such a hard time reading him. Thankfully, he didn't seem angry.

"I should be asking you that, Mayu," Byakuya said and twisted his lips to the side, "my actual reason for visiting you is that I was wondering why you sent Renji to me to apologize on your behalf?" Byakuya gave an inward sigh of relief at being able to say it without his voice cracking and without any unnecessary words.

"Because I was sorry, Kuchiki-sama and I figured he might see you first and you may not want to have me in your presence for a while," she said and gave him a puzzled look.

"Why were you sorry?" he asked.

"Obviously me wearing the kimono caused you some unbearable pain and you lashed out because of that. Whatever wounds I opened were deep, and I needed to apologize causing that because I am truly sorry, Kuchiki-sama," she said and he stared at her, unsure of how to react. For all her rustic lack of manners, this was an amazingly gracious apology. He could do no less than the same.

"Thank you, Mayu. I also need to extend an apology to you, what I did was inexcusable, no matter what my pain was. Please, forgive me," he said and dropped his eyes.

"Of course," she gave a little laugh. "No need to apologize!" Byakuya felt some deep emotion coming off of her, but couldn't tell what exactly it was before she tamped down on it again. He stood up and gave her a short bow and left.

Mayu realized that she was holding her breath as he left and let it out with a woosh. She finally was able to latch onto his reiatsu and after she was able to get a handle on it was amazed at how much conflict he was in. Mayu wondered why no one else saw this and then realized why he kept such an icy exterior. The scary reiatsu was an effective shield for concealing the truth, most people would never try to see or feel beyond that, while inside she now knew he was hurting. She looked up at the ceiling thinking about that when in a set of loud clumps and rushing wind Renji appeared.

"Oi, Mayu, wow, you look healthy," he said and Mayu gave him one of her grins.

"You must be really popular with the ladies, Renji," she mocked and he put his hands on his hips.

"Of course!" he said, affecting great pride and pushing out his chest.

Mayu got up suddenly. "Let's go!" As soon as she stood up she swayed a bit. Renji lunged forward and grabbed her.

"Uh, are you okay?" She nodded.

"Just the blood loss, it should be okay in a day, just stood up too fast," she muttered. "Hm, can we take some food with us?"

"Of course," Renji said and went to find someone to get food with Mayu trailing behind. One of the servants helped pack up a picnic lunch and gave it to Renji in a basket and they headed out to the training grounds.

"Okay, so what are the problems?" Mayu said and Renji shrugged.

"I dunno how to describe it, it's when I do binding spells," he muttered and she looked at him inquiringly.

"Show it on me," she ordered and he put her in a level 1 spell. She felt the amount of reiatsu and quickly broke it. "Okay, I see that these are maintained spells." She thought for a second.

"I bet you suck at healing stuff, too, don't ya?" she commented and Renji gave a mock frown.

"Watch your tongue, woman!"

"Okay, we'll do the same thing as before, but this time you need to sorta combine both levels of control. You need a really strong burst at the beginning and then you need to be able to maintain it, that means keep the reiatsu flowing at a steady level, if you go up or down too much it'll be too easy to break. See, when you do a spell at a certain level I'm assuming it takes on the power of how much reiatsu you put in. So you have to keep it at that level or it becomes unstable. That's sorta like it is with healing," she said and he nodded. "So, first, you're gonna gather up a lot, and then push it out. Then based on how much you're pushing out you're going to try keep it steady or build it up a bit. I'm going to lower my reiatsu so you can put whatever into me and then I'll keep decreasing or increasing it so you have to keep it at the right level." Renji sighed.

"Too damn kinky," he said and took Mayu's hand.

Byakuya hadn't meant to spy, but he was curious on how Mayu was teaching Renji. He overheard their conversation and watched them for several hours, amazed that she had enough control over her reiatsu to actually teach him like that without getting hurt. After watching her for a while he suddenly realized that every time Renji was making a mistake and shoving too much reiatsu into her, she "was" getting hurt, she was just healing it on the fly and not telling him. It seemed unreal that she could be doing something like that and thinking if that was the power that just one of the Rugai had, Seireitei did have a real reason to be scared of these people. That much reiatsu control was usually only seen in captains or higher. He sat and watched and listened some more as Renji started working on his kidou.

"Okay, use that binding spell again," Mayu asked and he did, she didn't struggle, but in a couple seconds had broken it. "You weren't maintaining it."

"Okay okay, let me try again." This time it went better.

"I had to use a lot more reiatsu to get out of that," she said and he nodded. "Now, use more at the initial casting and then push more to keep it up that high." He tried again, this time it took her even longer.

"See, you're getting it and ouch, that one hurt." Renji quickly looked at her wrists and saw the red marks.

"Oh, man, are you okay?" he worried and she gave a wicked grin.

"Fooled ya!" and laughed. Renji growled and she laughed harder.

"Okay, well, you get the idea now, but it's a lot of practice. You probably should practice until you can keep a reiatsu stream steady for around an hour, but that may take some time."

"So how long can you keep one steady?" Renji asked and she thought about it.

"Probably about half a day, maybe more, at a high level. At a smaller level indefinitely," she said and Renji's eyes widened.

"Indefinitely?"

"Yeah, it just has to be less than what my body naturally produces. I can force a faster production, but not for that long," she grimaced. "While I've got decent reiatsu, without being around any other Rugai, I'm a lot more weak."

"Weak?" Renji said in surprise.

"Yeah, we get a lot stronger around each other. When the Elders are around each other it's scary what they can do, they all have so much power naturally that it makes the rest of us look so useless," she sighed.

"Well, let me teach you something then, I know you don't want to learn any destructive kidou type stuff, but how about how to use a sword?" he asked and she looked up.

"Oh, cool, okay," she agreed and he stood up.

"Gimme a sec, I gotta get you a zanpakutou. " Renji shunpo'd to the barracks and got a blank zanpakutou and returned back in a minute. He handed it to her with the scabbard.

"Okay, first we'll be teaching you how to wear it, then how to draw it and then how to put it back in the saya," he explained and began teaching her how to tie it through her obi and explained where it would go if she had hakama. Then showed her how to properly unsheathe the katana and present it and then carefully put it back.

"Our zanpakutou's are extensions of ourselves. It's a condensed form of our power and our reiatsu. While we can live without it, it cannot survive without us, so it is bound to us for life. But with that much power comes its own consciousness and name and personality, so it can be very independent of its owner and even think and rationalize and grow outside of us. It's our full potential embodied in a weapon, so as we grow as individuals, it lets us know more and more about what we can be, but if we don't grow, it won't tell us because we aren't ready yet," he said and released Zabimaru by calling his name to give her an example.

"So, it's sort of like your best friend, internally?" Mayu asked and he nodded.

"What is Kuchiki-sama's?" she asked and Renji flinched.

"Uh, it's called Senbonzakura. He has a lot of different releases, but all of them basically amount of the same thing, his sword breaks into a ton of smaller blades and then they cut ya up pretty good. It's a really aesthetically pleasing release as long as you aren't on the receiving end," Renji gave a short bark of laughter.

"So what else can yours do?"

"Oh, Zabimaru has taught me a lot of releases, and a few months ago taught me bankai," he said with a little pride.

"What's bankai?"

"Like a high end release. It takes a lot of reiatsu to control as well as maintain, but it does a lot more damage. You can't do it until you know your zanpakutou pretty well and it tells you how to do stuff." Mayu looked at her zanpakutou.

"So these just become super weapons?" she asked and Renji nodded.

"Eventually that weapon fuses with you when you give it enough reiatsu and use it enough and after that it's just a game of trust," Renji said and Mayu stared at the sword in her hand. "Okay, let's teach you the basics of swordplay," he began and started teaching her some attacking and blocking moves, amazed at how fast she was picking up the basics.

Byakuya watched their glinting katanas from where he was sitting and thought again about how interesting this woman was. He heard that she wouldn't learn any destructive arts, maybe that was a failsafe to the Rugai to make sure they never turned into an offensive race? He knew that with her reiatsu her zanpakutou would bond early and wondered how that would affect her. Byakuya felt her reiatsu grow and fall as she went to attack or defend, something that usually didn't happen until a shinigami had been in the divisions for years. He knew she already had enough reiatsu and control to become at least vice captain. Putting his head back against the wall he was leaning on, he continued to watch their sparring, feeling peaceful.

"Okay, well, I dunno. You seem to be getting all this stuff and I figure it wouldn't hurt, so uh, why don't you try sitting down and putting some reiatsu into your zanpakutou. Usually we don't do this till you're graduating the academy, but heck, you have a ton of reiatsu and you can control it. I'm sorta curious to see if you can shikai and what the name of your zanpakutou is," Renji said and Mayu stared at him.

"Ermn, you mean I put my reiatsu into the sword?" she asked. "Won't it just break?"

"Nah, the zanpakutous are made out of some special spirit material that is meant just for shinigami's to eventually bond with them," he replied and she winced a little, thinking that she was doing something that only shinigami's did. Well, Shinji always did say to try new things that came around.

She sat down and under Renji's instruction drew the sword and put it carefully on her lap. Closing her eyes she felt the weight of the metal lying on her thighs and relaxed. Pouring her reiatsu carefully into the sword she tried to make a connection with the inanimate object, focusing her will into letting it hear her voice. Renji sat watching her, realizing she was in a pretty deep meditative trance. Almost an hour passed and he kept feeling her reiatsu slowly growing. Suddenly something appeared beside him.

"Oh shit," he gasped and Mayu opened her eyes and stared at him and then at the apparition beside him. "Mayu, you really should introduce yourself and ask for it's name."

For a few seconds all they did was stare at the large flaming tiger in front of them. It appeared to be made out of water, it's body almost transparent and ripping in waves. On top of those waves were flames licking up and down, creating stripes against the water and defining its body further.

"Hi," she said lamely, "I'm Mayu."

"I'm Hitoramizu," it growled. "And you are not a shinigami."

"No," she said and the tiger eyed her, coming close enough to sniff.

"You are strong," it growled. "Far too strong to be a shinigami. You have much to learn. Call me out and I will teach you." And it disappeared.

"Holy shit, Mayu," Renji gasped and Mayu looked at him confused.

"Was that was supposed to happen?" she asked, worried that she had messed something up.

Renji laughed and shook his head in wonder. "Uh, it was good, but most people never reach that level. You just skipped decades, centuries of work that usually comes before your zanpakutou materializes."

"So, what do I do now?"

"Well, draw out your sword and when you hold it call his name. That's a cool looking materialization though, it's probably going to be hardcore." Renji's mind was working hard wondering at figuring out how she had possibly could have done this.

Byakuya held his breath in shock as he saw Mayu's materialization. This was not possible; it was absolutely impossible that someone could have received a zanpakutou and within a few hours achieve materialization before they even achieved shikai. And yet he _had_ seen it and obviously Renji had as well, from the shocked look on his fukutaichou's face.

…

**Omake #1 for Hitoramizu**

…

"Dammit, Zaraki-taichou, I am not going to fight you!" Renji yelled at the man chasing after him.

"Then I won't sign the transfer paperwork, dumbass," Zaraki called back from Renji's heels.

"Fine, I'll just tell Kuchiki-taichou that you won't sign it!"

"Oh, you get into pansy boy's division and all of a sudden you can't fight your own battles?" Zaraki laughed and Yachiru popped up from his shoulder.

"Ken-chan! I want candy and Red-chan doesn't want to play!" Kenpachi turned his head slightly to look at the pink girl on his shoulder.

"You just had some candy."

"It's all gone now Ken-chan! Come on, let's get more candy and you can chase Red-chan later!" A little finger pointed to the right.

Kenpachi growled and swerved into a side street, being led to the candy store by his fukutaichou.

Renji, while relieved that he wasn't being chased anymore, wondered where they were going, as the road they were headed down led to the garbage dumps.

…

**Omake #2 for Hitoramizu**

…

_Senbonzakura_ / Byakuya

_You cannot mourn forever._

"I'm not mourning."

_Your heart is frost. Mourning is simply the showing of grief; you show grief with ice, not water._

"What do you wish of me?"

_Stop being afraid._

"I am not afraid."

_You are afraid of the water, you are afraid that with the melting of the ice there will come a flood. The flood will not wash you away, Byakuya, it will only clean the hurt from your soul_.

"And if I do not wish to be cleaned of all the hurt?"

_Then the ice will consume you and silence me._

"Is that a threat?"

_Simply a fact. A shinigami who can only live in winter is useless in the other three seasons._


	6. 5: Learning and Omake

_A/N: Something that always interested me was the training that had to occur to get shikai/bankai/materialization etc. Not really showed in the anime or manga except them communing/meditating with their swords and occasionally sparring. The Omake at the end had sorta gotten stuck in my head a few days ago.  
_

* * *

Looking at the sword in her lap Mayu gave an internal shrug before unsheathing it.

"Hitoramizu."

She and Renji watched in fascination, as her blade seemed to liquefy in the air, but still retained its shape. Curiously she went out and touched the pool of metal and her finger started a chain of ripples that went up and down the blade.

Renji nudged her. "Ask him what you should do now."

She heard Hitoramizu stir within her consciousness.

_You can make me into whatever your mind desires for as long as you can hold me. Call me out to this form by saying Dizorubu, or simply say it with force in your mind._

Curious, she mentally visualized a table and the liquid spread away from her hilt and made a low table on the ground. Grinning, she ran her fingers over it, it felt hard and durable; and then she came to the realization that swords were… swords… and probably didn't want their higher forms utilized to make furniture. Silently hoping Hitoramizu had a sense of humour, she then brought to mind small spiked spheres that would probably make him happier. The table slowly dissolved and the spheres formed, hovering without motion in the air.

_Visualize them moving, and they will._

She thought about them moving and they seemed to vibrate in the air. Whoops. Mayu then thought about them moving in away from her and they gave a jump and sped away out of sight. Concentrating, she realized that she could keep track of Hitoramizu by reiatsu and sense exactly where he was.

_Learn to guard yourself._

Quickly recalling the parts that had flown all over the training field she thought about a shield and it slowly spread over her, a disc about the size of a plate. That wouldn't do. Concentrating further she widened it and then covered herself almost entirely.

_The more reiatsu you give me, the better I attack and defend you. Recognize my power and you will increase your own._

She gave him a mental nod and reformed him back into sealed form and sheathed him.

Renji walked up to Mayu with a grin on his face. "Okay, that was pretty cool. Yanno, Hitoramizu is sorta like Kuchiki-taichou's blade - sorta."

"Really?"

"Yup, same sort of multidirectional, multi-part zanpakutou. I wonder if there is a classification for them." Renji thought about that for a while but realized that he had never seen or heard about any zanpakutou like his Captain's until now. "Well, we can try some more basic swordplay if you want."

Feeling Hitoramizu recede from her consciousness she nodded and then noted a strange presence on the field. Before she could comment on it to Renji she discovered that her hands her were numb and shaking; suddenly her saya fell to the ground from her nerveless fingers. She brought her gaze to Renji in shock.

"Mayu, what's going on?"

Trying to respond she felt a surge of panic as she tried to speak but no words came out. It was more than that; she couldn't even form words in her mind now.

Watching her stand perfectly still Renji wondered what was going on, and then he saw her fall face down, toppling like a tree.

He knelt down in alarm beside her. "What the hell?"

"I just needed to make sure this thing worked to specification." The 12th Division Captain appeared beside him and gave a toothy smile, holding up a small staff. "It not only senses where the failed experiments are, but it immobilizes them, if I leave it on it'll eventually make their brain explode." He gave a small chuckle and began to walk off the field.

Renji stared at him; he was just going to leave! "You bastard, turn it off!"

Mayuri raised an eyebrow and with a finger turned the device off. "Effective, isn't it? I'll be seeing you, fukutaichou." Mayuri was preparing to shunpo out of sight when a few sakura petals came down slowly on the wind and then Senbonzakura surrounded him.

The 12th Division Captain turned to see Byakuya upon the wall that overlooked the training ground with murder in his eyes. "Eh?"

Tonelessly Byakuya asked, "Mayuri, what was that?"

"An experiment. You have the only Rugai I can test my weapons on. Do you think that Commander will deny me that?"

Byakuya felt his gaze harden and tightened Senbonzakura around the other captain, shredding his clothing.

"No more experiments. If you ever try to enter my estate again without my permission I will kill you," Byakuya replied and sent Senbonzakura in to give him a not-so-gentle reminder of what lay in store for him if he came back. Mayuri gave a grunt as the blades flew into his skin and then he disappeared back to the 12th Division.

"Taichou!" Renji called in relief and Byakuya jumped off the wall where he had been watching and landed near the two. He stared down at Mayu's limp body. She was alive, but unconscious.

"Get her into her room," he ordered and Renji nodded and quickly brought her to her bed and laid her down carefully, noting that she appeared unharmed and only unconscious.

Renji looked at him with gratitude. "Taichou, you came just in time." There was a tense silence. "Oh, you were watching us." Renji sighed and some servants came in and Byakuya ordered a light dinner.

Arching an eyebrow Renji asked, "Um, how long were you watching us?"

Byakuya took a sip of the tea that the servants brought. "Long enough."

"So ya saw her materialization?" His Captain nodded. "What didja think?"

Byakuya gave a slow glance that became a hard glare to the younger man. "I think you were foolish in giving her a zanpakutou. She is not a shinigami. As it was, Mayuri may have seen, but I doubt he cares."

Frowning the redhead decided he was getting tired of kicking himself over stupid decisions. "Oh, I didn't think of that."

"However, it did appear to make her happy, so you can continue her training. With her reiatsu control that I saw today she could achieve bankai easily, and perhaps that would be something interesting to behold. At the very least it would beyond unprecedented."

"You think so? I guess that's why they want them all killed off," Renji commented and Byakuya nodded, placing his tea down and put his hands in his lap as the servants entered with some food.

"I suspect that is part of the reason." Byakuya was silent as they served them dinner and then bowed out.

"Like anything, Renji, once something gets out of control, Seireitei usually tries to dispose of it as quickly as possible." Byakuya delicately began putting food into his mouth and slowly chewed.

Renji, on the other hand was shoveling the food into his mouth with chopsticks, being intensely hungry after using so much reiatsu.

"You are doing very well now with kidou," Byakuya noted and Renji looked up at him, surprised at the straightforward compliment.

"Oh, well, thank you, Taichou. It was mostly due to Mayu, she really showed me the ins and outs of it. The amount of reiatsu she has is really incredible." Renji slurped his soup loudly; not noticing the wince his Captain gave the loud noise.

"Yes, her reiatsu levels are amazingly high," said Byakuya distractedly looking at the bed, "do you want to join us now, Mayu?"

Renji looked at her quickly, having been so intent on the food and the memories of the afternoon that he never noticed her reiatsu change.

"Uh, yeah, what the heck happened?" she asked and gave a quick shake of her head to clear it of the fuzziness that still remained. "I have a really nasty headache." Byakuya and Renji glanced at each other for a moment and Byakuya frowned.

"The captain that is in charge of killing off all the Rugai snuck into the estate and tried a weapon on you that incapacitated you," he replied shortly and Renji waited for a reaction, but she simply nodded and sat down, spooning some rice into her bowl.

He gave her a poke, making sure she was still paying attention. "Uh, aren't you pissed?"

She shook her head. "No, Shinigami have been trying new weapons on us forever. Some work really well until we adapt to them, some just sorta break and fail at the first go. It's nothing new." Carefully she picked out all the sushi that had avocado in it and plopped them on her plate.

Renji had problems accepting that one. "That's sorta a nonchalant attitude over people who wanna kill you."

"Well, realistically, what can be done about it? The Rugai have always tried to send messengers or messages, but the messengers never come back and there have never been any responses to any notes we send. Diplomacy doesn't work and the Rugai refuse to become aggressive even if it means extinction.

"I mean, I think that every young Rugai gets angry at one point and wants to go and destroy all of Seireitei, but that always passes on way or another. There would be no point to it other than to cause more destruction and destroy a system that is there to aid not one, but two worlds, well three I guess. Compared to that, a small race's trials seem unimportant. It takes a while to understand that, but once you get it, you don't forget." Mayu remembered when she made the decision that perhaps being aggressive wasn't worth it anymore. It was then that Shinji asked her to marry him.

Byakuya slowly ate the last bite of rice out of his bowl and he rose with a feeling of comfortable fullness. "Well, I hope that your training continues well. I will be auditing three estates starting early tomorrow to late in the evening. Good night."

"He's always so abrupt," commented Mayu and Renji nodded. "So, want to practice some more tomorrow?"

"Hell yeah! We have two things to work on now! Your stuff and my stuff," he declared. "After we clear this stuff up let's hit the hay, it's been a wild day." They both cleared the table and brought all the dishes downstairs to the amusement of the servants who quickly relieved them of the dirty bowls and plates. Renji found a room on the first floor that would serve as a bedroom and study.

Mayu slowly got ready for bed and then gave a small sigh, looking out the large screen that opened to a balcony. She missed Shinji, she missed his warmth and his companionship; just the way that he made her feel when he was close by. It had been almost ten years since she had last been alone and she quickly pushed back the surge of depression that threatened to overwhelm her.

"Uh, Mayu?" Renji was at the door and looking at her with concern.

She turned around quickly and smirked at Renji who had apparently been undressing or had hurriedly put on clothes as they were quite askew. He saw the mirth in her eyes and quickly tugged the uniform a bit more into place, but still pressed his question, "Are you okay?"

"Uh, yeah, I was just feeling lonely, uh, why?" Mayu asked with a measure of confusion.

Renji shuffled his feet at the door a bit. "Well, it must have been a pretty powerful loneliness cuz I felt that downstairs."

She felt the blush on her cheeks. "Sorry, I didn't mean for that to happen."

"S'ok, do ya want company?"  
Giving him a quick look Mayu shook her head. "Nah, it's okay Renji. Um, we've done a lot of reiatsu sharing today and I don't want you to be uncomfortable and all of that will pass easier once you get some sleep."  
Renji gave an irritated sigh. "Look, I said I was sorry about what happened. That means it won't happen again. I wasn't offering sex, just company. Believe it or not I can do that, too. Well, I mean you don't know if I can… not that I can't. Agh!" He looked up at the ceiling, wishing that he had his Captain's way with words. When he looked back at Mayu he saw her give a little smile and nod.

"Yes, I would like the company, Renji," she agreed and slipped in between the sheets. Renji carefully lay on top of the bed, keeping the sheets between his body and Mayu's and put an arm carefully around her and she moved closer to his warmth.

"Mmn, nice," Mayu said and Renji nodded and then blew out a bit, getting a few of her stray hairs out of his face.

"Let's get some sleep, Mayu."

Byakuya went to check in on Mayu before he left the estate in the morning and saw that she and Renji were sleeping together. He turned away quickly before his face could show any displeasure. Was it jealousy? No. Something else. It was the feeling you had when you were robbed. He gave another look back at them again and realized that there was nothing there to be afraid of. Obviously they had simply fallen asleep together, no physical things occurred between them. Simply fallen asleep together. He calmed his heartbeat and realized that he had shown Mayu nothing that would be construed as interest, there was no reason why she would come to him for help or support. The feeling of irritation swelled, but he quickly tamped down on it, leaving his estate for his morning's property checks.

Mayu woke up to Renji's deep breathing and stared at his tattooed chest. One finger traced the tribal pattern on his ribs and he jerked with a grunt.

"Don't… tickles," he complained, squirming.

"Sorry, that stuff is really cool, you can feel the raised edges." She stared in fascination and felt the edge of another part of the tattoo.

"Ack, I said it tickles!"

"So, why do ya have them?" she asked and he shrugged.

"Um, it started in the academy, every successful mission of any importance I ended up getting a new one, so it'll just keep going I guess until I run out of skin," Renji replied and laughed.

"Doesn't it hurt to get these?"

He gave a shrug and ran his fingers through his hair to get it out of his face. "Not that much, actually."

Mayu gave him a skeptical look. "Heh, well, yeah, I guess having needles stuck in you thousands of times would feel sorta good… masochist." Renji laughed.

"You're not one to talk, Mayu."

She laughed. "Come on now, I at least have the race excuse. We're born and bred to expect to be hurt and die, what's yours?"

"I dunno, but the tattoos are sorta like milestones for me. It sorta hurts to get them, but you don't want to forget why you got them either."

Mayu got up gave a tug to her yakuta, thinking that she hadn't expected to sleep so well with a Shinigami so close. Obviously her survival instincts were now at an all time low. However, she had been grateful for the company. "Mmmn, thanks for staying."

"No problem. I've never slept with a person like that before," Renji said honestly, "it was really cool." Mayu eyed him speculatively.

Getting up he stammered, "No, I didn't mean I never, I meant…" then he noticed the devilish gleam in her eyes and flopped back down on the bed.

"Okay, bathe, eat, train?" she asked and he nodded sullenly at the mirth in her voice.

Out on the field it was a wonderfully bright, warm day, unlike the chilliness earlier in the week. Working first a little on Renji's kidou training, they both soon realized it was just going to be continuous practice to increase in skill level. He now knew what to do, he just had to buckle down and practice until it came faster and at a higher reiatsu than what he was currently maintaining. Mayu gave him some tips when an occasional spell misfired, but didn't have anything more to show him other than idea on holding reiatsu.

"So, you've seen me cast these spells a million times, don't you want to learn how to do this?" Renji wiped the sweat from his neck and gave a heavy breath, feeling a little drained from the hours of practice.

"Nah, it's a lot more fun watching you do stuff." Mayu gave a chuckle at his disconcernation and felt Hitoramizu quiver at her side.

_Learn how to use me in battle._

Mayu gave a start at the voice echoing in her head.

"I don't have anyone for you to fight."

_There is someone right in front of you who would love to fight._

"What? Fight Renji?"

_Better to learn fighting friends who won't kill you than enemies who may._

"You really want to fight? I mean, can't we practice without fighting?"

_You do not infuse a zanpakutou and then deny it battle. Whether it was a conscious decision or not, you started down a path that will lead to battle. If you do not learn how to use me, you will be ill prepared for what comes._

"Wait, you're telling me that because of what happened yesterday all of a sudden I'm going to be fighting people?"

_Yes._

Mayu brought her thoughts back to the day when she stood in front of a council and swore her life to peaceful activities. Her father hadn't approved and recalling his face when she stated her plan still gave her chills. Was it all about destiny? Was she set to become someone who would have the power to destroy other people from the beginning and she was just delaying? Giving an irritated grunt she realized that Renji was staring at her, knowing she was having a conversation with Hitoramizu by the glazed look in her eyes.

"What's up, Mayu?"

"Hitoramizu really wants me to start fighting. Fighting you, to be precise."

Renji's eyes widened slightly and he grinned. "Hell yeah!" Zabimaru seemed to fly out of his saya in eagerness.

"Woah, woah, woah!" Mayu stepped back. "Look, I'm not a fighting type of person."

_Liar._

"Well, you should be. Shouldn't we all do stuff that we're good at. You're good at this reiatsu stuff and with a zanpakutou you're getting really hardcore. Why not continue and see where it goes? What's the harm in it?" Renji looked at her questioningly and she hesitated. The words of the Elders still rang in her head about the evils of fighting without permission. "Look, Kuchiki-taichou said that while he would have never given you a zanpakutou he was really happy with what was happening and impressed with how far you've gone. Why stop something you're good at?" Renji knew that that was a slight exaggeration on his part, but he thought it was what his Captain meant to have said.

Staring at Renji, Mayu paused. Kuchiki-sama wanted her to keep going and was happy with her learning these things? Racing through scenarios in her mind, she tried to decide what was more important. A bound debt always took precedence. Always.

"Okay, uh, we can try," she said with finality.

Renji released Zabimaru and the segmented sword flung out from his hand. "Don't worry, it's how you and Hitoramizu will get stronger."

Mayu silently called out Hitoramizu and watched as the blade turned to liquid in front of her and she mentally made him coalesce into a sphere, figuring that that was a good ready stance.

_Trust, Mayu. I will trust you to do the right thing and you will trust me with your life._

She nodded.

_Now think of a weapon, or weapons._

The first thing that came to her mind, unoriginally, was swords. Hitoramizu reformed as small shining blades.

Waiting, Renji watched from the other side, letting her attack first.

_Now, with your will and intent, throw them forward. Your reiatsu is strong, but you must have the intent to win and destroy your targets._

Imagining swords flying she poured her reiatsu into Hitoramizu and they shot forward. Zabimaru snaked out and with a clash blocked them all.

_Intent to kill doesn't mean moving them forward, it means piercing the target. You must get past your fear of harming others. Look at your opponent, he does not fear to harm you or himself, you should do him the honour of not fearing to harm him or letting him harm you._

Reforming the swords again she visualized them piercing into Renji. Giving an inward cringe at the thought she sent the blades towards him again. This time Zabimaru didn't catch them all and one shot near Renji's face and gave a shallow cut under his ear. Grinning, he nodded appreciatively.

_He will now attack, use me to shield yourself. He will not hold back, match and exceed his strength._

She saw Zabimaru already flying through the air and quickly made her metal shield and the attack was blocked, but she could feel the reverberation of the strike through her reiatsu and shuddered at the force.

_Now counter attack._

Quickly making the blades again she shot them forward, but Renji already had Zabimaru out and shunpo'd past the blades and suddenly his katana was at her throat.

"Tag!" he grinned. Mayu gave a sigh in frustration and summoned Hitoramizu back.

"Well, you obviously need to practice on controlling it and switching forms faster. But if this is a similar type of sword as Kuchiki-taichou's, then you can attack from any direction as well, don't just attack from the front. You might be able to use your shikai for attacking and defending, learn to split it up to do different things. I can't say that I can help you a lot in how to control it, but I can tell you the things that I have seen Kuchiki-taichou do with his shikai and bankai." Renji sheathed his sword and Mayu did the same, mulling over his words and having an odd feeling of fulfillment at what happened, it was always appealing to learn new things. Impulsively she hugged Renji who stiffened in shock and then his hand went up to pat her on the back.

"Thanks Renji."

"No problem, so prolly don't want another bout of it, huh?"

Mayu shook her head and gave a smile. "Soon though, let me practice with Hitoramizu a little so that I won't be so much of an easy target."

Renji laughed and they both looked at the sun at the same time and went for a quick lunch.

The kidou training for Renji after lunch went well, but soon he called it short and instead they sat and talked about various strategies and Renji gave Mayu tips with how to control Hitoramizu when she called her shikai again. She was getting faster in destroying small objects as well as reforming Hitoramizu into various objects used for different types of attacks. Finally Mayu called a halt.

"Okay, 'nuff for me for today, why don't you practice some kidou again," she gasped, feeling the sweat roll down her face from the hot sun and the concentration she had poured into her zanpakutou practice.

"Wuss!" Renji laughed and began practicing some destructive arts with Mayu at his side, commenting on each one. On one blue fire kidou there was a larger explosion than normal and some bits of rock flew into their faces. Mayu and Renji stared and went over to investigate. On the edge of the training grounds his spell had blasted a hole into what looked like solid quartz.

"Woah, hunh." Mayu bent to touch the cool stone and a thought came to her.

She visualized what she was thinking and felt Hitoramizu stir.

_Why?_

"As a present."

_For whom?_

"A person who saved my life."

She felt his agreement and unsheathed him and stepping back Renji wondered what she was doing. Hitoramizu flew towards the chunk of rock and surrounding it, pulled out faceted chunks and then with her will spun them around wildly to create a half dozen hand sized spheres that looked like foggy glass, but had enough slight facets to catch the light like a prism. Renji stared at them as they formed.

"That's really neat, why're you making them?"

"Well, I figured that Kuchiki-sama has everything that a shinigami or noble could want material-wise, so maybe it'd be nice to give him something he doesn't expect. I mean, he's feeding and housing us, right? These would look really neat in his garden when the light hits them."

Renji grunted, realizing that he reluctantly agreed.

"So where should we put them so he finds them?" she asked.

"Eh, his office probably."  
Walking back up towards the manor Mayu wrote a short note and found a basket in the kitchen to put them in. After getting lost only once they located the office and placed the basket outside the door. Both feeling tired and content they went back to the guesthouse.

"Hey, want to come to a party in a couple of days," Renji asked suddenly.

"Uh, a shinigami one?" she mused and he nodded. "I don't think that's a great idea." Renji couldn't keep the disappointment off his face.

"Come on, no one will know you. I'll say you're a friend from Rukongai, just tamp down on that reiatsu and it'll be fine," he begged, making strange, scary puppy dog eyes at her.

"Um, well, let me think about it." They had another quick dinner and after all the training they decided to go to bed early. This time Renji didn't ask or wait to be asked, he got into bed with Mayu and they curled up together, his front to her back and his arms around her. They both fell asleep almost instantly.

Byakuya got back late at night with the pleased feeling of someone who had a series of accomplishments during the day. He had gone through three of the most productive estates and found adequate people to handle the paperwork and one who might even be adequate to handle more than one estate. That meant that less work for him and more organization. It was nice when things turned out well.

He ordered some food sent to his room and went to his office to put back the ledgers he had taken with him. As he opened his shoji his tabi bumped against a basket left at the foot of the door. Picking it up he realized it was heavy and brought it into the office with him, flipping on some lights. Inside were small crystal globes. He saw how each one was refracting light differently and there were some small flaws that caused the sparkles to be even more pronounced. Byakuya was impressed; he had rarely seen anything so lovely. He read the note from Mayu explaining how they were made and her hope that he would enjoy them.

He came to the realization that he didn't know how to reply to getting a gift that had been given with no strings. The atypical thank you note probably wouldn't apply to this situation. She had obviously spent a lot of time and effort doing this. What could he do in return? Giving it some thought he made the decision to eat and then decide in what way he would reply.

After eating he went to the guesthouse and saw that all the lights were off and stealthily went up the stairs, looking in, unsurprised to see Renji and Mayu both in the same bed. He felt no jealousy or anger or resentment this time, he was happy to see them both content. Happy. It had been a long time since he could say that for himself. Remembering that tomorrow Renji would be attending five Captain meetings, he decided to take Mayu out and have a lunch in one of his favorite parts of Soul Society. Maybe that would show his gratitude.

When Mayu and Renji woke up, Renji got up with alacrity.

"Oh crap," he growled, shrugging on his shinigami uniform and putting his hair back quickly.

"What's wrong?" asked Mayu sleepily.

"I have captain meetings all day today, they start, uh, really soon." Quickly hopping into his hakama he wrestled with the ties, swearing profusely.

Mayu laughed. "Well, good luck. Remember, use your reiatsu suppression when you start getting ticked and they'll never know."

"I will, uh, I'll see you tonight if I don't pass out at the barracks," he called from the doorway.

Enjoying the relaxed feeling she had that morning Mayu took a bath and then went to go see if she could scrounge up some food. She always felt bad asking other people to cook for her. As soon as she went downstairs she saw Byakuya in the hallway, his robes billowing from the spring breeze that came in through the hall.

"I would like to thank you for the beautiful present, Mayu. And I would like to invite you to a lunch at a place that is close to my heart," he asked formally and her eyes widened. She had rarely felt his reiatsu so open and the strength of it made the back of her neck prickle.

"Thank you Kuchiki-sama," she beamed. "I would be glad to."

"I will be by to pick you up in an hour." Seeing her acquiescence he turned on his heel and walked out. After feeling his reiatsu she shuddered. She had only felt something like that when among the Elders. Mayu couldn't deny that it was also fascinating; these were the Captain Shinigami that all the Rugai were scared of, the ones that could take down an Elder with just a thought.

She found some quail eggs and ate them as a quick snack and went to go get a nice kimono. She asked one of the servants which kimonos were Hisana's and avoided those, but still chose a nice purple one with pink patterns and a matching obi. Quickly pinning her short hair back she bit her lip and stared at her reflection, this was about as good as it was going to get.

Exactly one hour later Byakuya came by with a basket on his arm and took her hand.

"It's quite a ways out, so do you mind if I carry you?" he asked and she shook her head and he took her by the waist and shunpo'd to a lake on the far outskirts of the forest. When he let go of her she was out of breath for a few minutes, but smiling. Moving that fast with someone else doing it was fun, if a little scary.

With a measure of amazement she looked over at the lake, never before had she seen one this size. The shoreline in the distance was only a faint shadow that could almost be a trick of the eyes. Byakuya had set them down on top of a hill full of sakura trees, and although the time was past for their blossoms, their scent still lingered in the air. Smelling that and something else she came to the realization that Byakuya had a scent of sweet cedar that was mixing with the sakura.

He carefully spread a cloth on the ground, set Senbonzakura beside him and made a motion for her to sit on the springy grass. She watched as he set about unpacking the meal. There was enough for five people.

"Wow, how did you fit all that in that basket?" she asked, amazed.

Byakuya arched an eyebrow. "It's a trick you learn when you become a Captain," he explained with mock seriousness and she laughed.

They sat eating on top of the hill and she looked over the peaceful lake and sighed.

"It's amazing." Mayu marveled at the view, feeling the quiet spirit of the place infuse her.

"Yes, I always thought so."

She felt the sorrow deep inside him. "You used to come here with your wife," she said with a certainty and Byakuya looked at her angrily but realized that she meant no offense by it and was looking at him sadly.

"Yes," he sighed.

She could feel the loneliness that was rippling off of him that he was making no thought to hide as he was lost in the old memories of this place. Mayu felt that she had to do something and gently placed her hand over his; Byakuya gave a start at the unexpected touch, but didn't pull back. Instead he took her hand in his and their fingers intertwined as both of them stared at over the lake.

She felt his reiatsu settle and calm. They slowly drank tea, their hands still touching. Mayu was amazed at the feeling of his palm, there were calluses from so much sword work, but his fingers were slender and delicate, yet with the underlying power that marked his every move.

The thought that her attraction to dangerous Shinigami was perhaps because of all the warnings the Elders had drummed into her head flitted through her mind and left.

She found herself scooting a bit closer to him as a wind blew over the lake with a chilly touch. He took his hand away from hers and put it around her shoulders, she reached up to touch his fingers on her shoulder with hers and they naturally intertwined again. While they had been eating she had made a note that he was enjoying the spicy dishes the most and now impulsively plucked a spicy tofu snack from the remains of the meal and held it in front of his face. Byakuya looked surprised again and after a moment's hesitation took it from her fingers with his mouth and slowly chewed it, watching her smile.

With that offering she felt something within him relax and noticed that his eyes were no longer cold and hard, they were just calm and peaceful, reflecting the lake and sun. The tension that outlined his face was slowly disappearing. Hoping that perhaps she was giving him some peace and happiness she laid her head against his kimono and felt her eyes close to the rhythmic sounds of the water lapping the shore.

Byakuya didn't know how she managed to make him feel so at ease. Figuring it was something about her reiatsu, he just sat back and enjoyed it. Out here no one was going to watch him or comment on what he did; there was just this woman who was so alive and trying to make due, like him, but she was trying to do it happily, unlike him. He gave a glance at her peaceful sleeping face and felt her soft hand in his. Memories of the first time he had taken Hisana to the lake came to his mind. She was already quite ill by that time, but she sat for hours staring into the sun, watching the ripples on the lake in silence. Byakuya had always wanted to hold her and touch her more than he did, but she was too fragile and always was too burdened by her guilt to accept any pleasure or comfort for herself.

Feeling Mayu's body against his and her reiatsu gently trickling over him he realized that this was something that he never had with Hisana, real closeness. Her sister and her illness were always between them, even at their most intimate times. What he would have given for just one day like this with her, he thought with regret. Idly touching Mayu's face he felt her soft skin under his fingertips, he saw her lips part in a sleepy smile and her body move instinctively closer. He wished he could do what she did, just let go and be able to be happy and laugh freely. Byakuya knew that he had given that up a long time ago, but he also knew that he had purposefully denied himself pleasures as well in order to increase his suffering after Hisana died. Giving a sigh and some faint hope for change he closed his eyes, feeling the wind from the lake brush his face and fell asleep, his head relaxing back against the trunk of the tree behind him.

He woke up as the sun was setting and gently shook Mayu.

"Mayu, watch the sunset," he whispered and she sleepily opened her eyes and stared at the orange, pink and purple flames spreading across the lake and smiled.

"Amazing, like watercolours across a liquid canvas," she gasped and he nodded.

"Aptly put." Soon the fiery ball went below the lake.

"It's nighttime," he commented and made to stand up, but she tugged him to stay.

"Can we wait for the moon?" she requested and he nodded and pulled her closer, wrapping his haori around her shoulders so she wouldn't feel the chill. Before he knew what he was doing he had pulled her closer to his chest.

In his embrace she found herself comparing the two Shinigami she knew. Renji was strong and more massive, but Byakuya held so much latent power that it was almost overwhelming; she could feel it pouring out of him now that he was relaxed and it was - intoxicating. She knew that she hadn't bothered to rein in her reiatsu since they got to the lake, instinctively responding to his and wondered if he could feel her as well as she was feeling his. Reaching up she took some of his reiatsu in her hand and looked at it, softly glowing. It was wind, like hers.

"How do you do that?" asked Byakuya and Mayu looked up.

"Um, concentrate on the reiatsu that the person is naturally emitting, and concentrate on spindling it in your hand. It's something that you learn with the Rugai in order to better understand reiatsu control and sometimes to get an initial idea about the character of a person." Byakuya held his hand carefully over her and easily felt the reiatsu she was emitting. Gathering it carefully in his hand he examined it.

"You are a wind spirit, like me," he observed and she nodded. "But your reiatsu feels like water."

Mayu shrugged. "Maybe I'm both." Byakuya let the reiatsu flow from his hand onto the ground where it sparkled for a few seconds and disappeared.

"That is a beautiful thing to do," he commented and she gave a murmur of assent.

"Rugai share a lot of reiatsu. After training with Renji I assume that Shinigami don't."

Byakuya thought about it for a second. "No, not in the way that you were showing Renji," he agreed and looked over the top of her head at the stars starting to blink above the lake, "we can use it in all the ways you do, but we don't give and take reiatsu unless the person is ill and cannot produce their own, but never as a way to… share." Mayu made a small grunt and looked up at him, sitting up and letting his arm fall away.

"Do you mind if I give you something with reiatsu?" she asked and he looked warily at her. "Uh, it's nothing physical, just something Rugai do when gratitude is in order and I am very grateful to you and all that you have done for me." Byakuya sensed no double meaning in her tone and gave a nod of assent.

She took his right hand in both of hers and put the flat of his palm on her chest, his fingers just brushing her neck. He felt a tug on his reiatsu and then felt her taking a small amount of it into her and then her levels started rising dramatically. Right before he was going to tell her to stop she began to trickle the reiatsu back into him.

Byakuya felt it first go through his hand – it felt like silk running through his veins. The sensation then passed heatedly through his whole body, making him close his eyes with the pleasure of it. Suddenly he could feel her emotions within his body, spreading through him peacefully and calming his thoughts. He could feel what she felt - her caring and kindness and her affection for him, infusing his body with comfort. Finally the reiatsu slowly trickled to a halt and he opened his eyes. She said it wasn't physical, but it seemed to transcend anything as lowly as a touch. She brought his hand up off her chest to her lips and gave his fingertips a kiss as he stared at her dumbly.

"Um, oh are you okay? It didn't work, did it?" she frowned and looked worried.

"No, it worked," he insisted, missing that feeling of closeness, "what did you do?"

"I just shared my reiatsu with you for a while, slowly, along with part of my consciousness so you could feel what I was feeling and enhance any good feelings of your own. You create positive reiatsu and then really build on it to make the other person relaxed and comfortable. The Rugai just call it '_anta_'." Mayu felt the calmness and peace that now was a part of his reiatsu and hope that he was enjoying the experience.

"That was one of the most amazing experiences in my life," he replied honestly and she smiled.

"Look, the moon." She pointed and they watched the moon as it slowly came into view of the lake and the reflection started to spread.

"It's time to go back," Byakuya said after a few minutes and Mayu began to clean up the area. After shunpo'ing back to the guesthouse with Mayu in tow he gave her a bow as he left which she returned with a smile and wished him a good night.

She saw the moon brightly in the sky after her bath and wondered if Renji was going to be coming by tonight or if he was staying at the barracks. Mayu went to make a small box of food for him, just in case in came by. Touching Hitoramizu with her fingertips while sitting on the balcony she gave a peaceful sigh, thinking about the day.

Byakuya gave the basket to a servant waiting outside his chambers and began to prepare for bed, taking his bath first. He looked at his hands while he was in the water; he was surprised that they were not trembling after all the emotion that coursed through him that afternoon. Still feeling Mayu's calming presence deep within him he wondered if she felt the same, he hoped so. Feeling the warmth and peacefulness inside him was amazing and moderately frightening when he realized this wasn't something he could just thrust away from himself. After finishing his bath he lay on his bed and went over every detail of that day.

_Thank you._

It was Senbonzakura. He could hear the smile her voice.

_It was a wonderful day, my world is brighter now and I can see everything._

Byakuya gave his own small smile before he fell asleep.

…

**Omake for Learning**

…

At the first meeting of the day Yamamoto ordered Renji to name every single one of the members of his Division and give a summary of his seated officers. Two hundred and fifty names later Yamamoto stopped him with a wave of his hand and a muttered, "How disappointing, Abarai-fukutaichou, how disappointing."

At the second meeting of the day Soifon "accidentally" ran by him with her sword unsheathed as she went to line up. As a result Renji spent the next hour holding his hakama up and hoping that no one was looking anywhere below his waist.

At the third meeting of the day Shunsui had given him a little pinch and commented on how good his legs looked and asked what type of lower body workout he had been doing. The Commander-General had told him that there wasn't time for him to return to the barracks to change between meetings and that he should take better care of his clothing.

At lunch in the Captain's cafeteria Toshirou offered to get him some food since Renji was late (having to change into new hakama.) Renji ate it quickly, but soon started to feel a little green.

At the fourth meeting of the day Renji spent most of the time rushing to and from the restroom, alternatively kneeling before the toilet or sitting on it wondering if he was going to die.

At the fifth meeting Ukitake kindly patted Renji on the back, asking how he was. Renji replied that he was feeling better, weak and tired, but better.

After the fifth and last meeting he was slowly, painfully and tiredly walking back to the Division barracks when he heard a woman squeal. And then a man squeal and suddenly people were tearing off his clothes. Not gently tugging, but sincerely trying to tear them off of his body, and succeeding. As the last shred of cloth flit away he noticed the piece of parchment that had been stuck on his back lying on the ground.

_These clothes were worn by Kuchiki Byakuya_

At the private sixth meeting that was held late in the night with bottles of sake and comfortable chairs the Captains of the Gotei 13 laughed until they cried at the hazing of Abarai Renji.


	7. 6: Healing and Omake

_A/N: I know - Ukitake may be as old as 2000+ years, but for some reason that makes my brain hurt, so made him closer to 1k. Also, sorry for not posting anything for a few days, friend came into town and much partying ensued, thus no revising or cutting chapters happened._

* * *

Mayu heard Renji trying to come stealthily up the stairs later that night and heard him shuffling outside the room.

"Renji? I have some food if you want to eat," she called and he came out onto the balcony, his eyes troubled.

"Are you okay?" She looked at the bento box beside her and handed it to him. He took it and sat down.

"Mayu, you know I wouldn't lie to you, right?" Renji mumbled and Mayu gave a nod, wondering what was bothering him.

"They're starting a full scale attack on the Rugai in a week. The Commander-General wants them exterminated in a month," he told her and her eyes went blank.

"A month?"

"The Captain in charge has come up with all sorts of new weapons to make everything faster and they've pinpointed all the locations."

She took a deep breath. "Okay." Looking up she met his eyes with a clear gaze.

"No, it's not okay, they're going to kill all of them and then they are going to kill you!" he retorted and she shook her head.

"That may happen in five or six weeks. Things may happen earlier and they may happen later. Enjoy the time now," she said and handed him a pair of chopsticks. "Look outside and enjoy the evening." Renji gave a small sigh and realized it was good advice and turned his attention to the moon and the stars.

"What did you do today?" he asked, munching on the cold food.

"Kuchiki-sama took me out to a lake for lunch, we stayed there a while and came back. I was talking to Hitoramizu when you came in." Her voice was soft as she thought about the feelings that passed between her and Byakuya while they sat looking at the lake.

Renji gave a grunt. "Yeah, he left a really nice set of sunglasses for me as a thank you for the present we gave him, I guess he really liked them."

"He enjoys things that are beautiful," she confided absently, feeling his warm presence within her. Renji wondered what went on between the two, but decided not to ask and instead just enjoy the time together.

"So, what about the party?" he grinned.

"Uh, if you think it's okay, sure!" Renji raised his eyebrows, he was sure that she was going to decline.

"Cool, well, it'll be in three days and god knows how long it'll last." Renji smiled and thought of Matsumoto at the party and cringed a little bit.

"Heh, well, we're not staying there for days, right?" she said and he shook his head.

"Hell no, it'll soon get so out of hand that as acting Taichou I'll have to leave or else I have to report people. I'll drop in now and again to party, but I can't stay the whole time. My Division has another week and a half off so they're just having fun now." Thinking of the 'fun' that was going to happen both made him pleased and agitated because of the destruction that he was sure would ensue.

Renji gave a long yawn; it had been a really stressful day with the five meetings. "Okayy, I'm about to pass out now."

He followed Mayu back into the bedroom and curled his bulk around her, falling asleep quickly. Mayu stayed up for a little while longer and felt his deep breathing and wondered at how at ease she was around him, as if she had known him for years.

The next day they were both awakened to a knock on the door and Renji quickly wrapped a kimono around himself and went to answer it. It was from a courier concerning an altercation between 6th and 11th divisions. Renji swore and told the courier to send back a message saying he'd be there in a few minutes. Mayu looked at him sleepily and he knelt down at her side of the bed.

"My division got in trouble, I gotta go fix it. Probably won't be back today. Hey, if you get a chance, practice with Hitoramizu some, even by yourself, he needs to get some fresh air." She nodded and squeezed his hand before he left. Finally, abandoning sleep she got up, bathed and went out into the training ground after a very light breakfast.

Renji stopped by Byakuya's office before he left and unsurprisingly his Captain was there, working on something. He knocked gently at the door.

"Renji," Byakuya said and looked up from his papers.

"Um, Taichou, I was wondering if I could ask you a very awkward favour?" Renji said and Byakuya blinked at him with interest and waited from him to continue.

"I've been staying here, but when I'm gone and you are gone the squad just starts running rampant in the evenings. So for the next few nights I'll be bunking down with them," he started nervously and Byakuya narrowed his eyes, wondering where he was going with this. "Uh, well, I've been sleeping with Mayu. Shit, I didn't mean it like that. I've been just there holding her when she sleeps; we haven't done anything more than that. She really enjoys the company and I think it's better for her. She just needs someone else there and I was wondering," he stammered off and then realized he was asking his Taichou to sleep with a woman and he snapped his mouth shut. "I think I'll just go now, Taichou."

"I understand your concern, Renji. I will try not to let anything happen to her while you are gone," Byakuya said, amused at his fukutaichou's concern and Renji bobbed his head, gave a muttered thanks and disappeared, hoping that a fight with Zaraki-taichou was not in the offing.

Byakuya wondered why she needed company or what was troubling her. From what she had shared yesterday he felt no disturbance, but then she said was only sharing happiness, she wasn't sharing pain or sadness – in fact it seemed she was trying to keep those things away from him. He felt her presence again stir within him and give him a warm feeling that almost made him smile. A twitch in the back of his mind told him that Senbonzakura was demanding attention.

_I want to meet Hitoramizu._

He listened to the urgency of the request and nodded. That could definitely be done. Knowing Mayu she'd be playing with her new zanpakutou all day. How did he know that? He realized that that part of herself she gave to him probably held a lot more of her personality than he previously realized. Finishing up his paperwork and sending it to his new accountant he left to find Mayu.

At the training grounds Mayu was practicing with Hitoramizu, she had gotten faster at dispersing him and reforming as well as creating a multitude of different types of weapons and shields. Finally from one of his requests she formed a small tiger and then spent some time working on getting him to articulate based her reiatsu until she could move him around without thinking about it, or give him control and keep that form together. Turning, she felt Byakuya coming onto the field. She stood up and bowed to him.

"Kuchiki-sama," she said and he looked at the little tiger by her side.

"Mayu, Hitoramizu," Byakuya replied, inclining his head to them both. "Mayu, I have someone who wants to meet Hitoramizu." He drew Senbonzakura and Mayu took a step back in shock. He held it up in front of his face.

"Chire."

Staring, she watched as the sword broke apart into a thousand thin blades, shining bright pink in the sun as they twisted and turned. Indeed like sakura blossoms, each one a young warrior, she thought, amazed at seeing up close after only seeing the pink wave at a distance when she and Shinji watched the battle between him and the arrancar. She motioned Hitoramizu forward to Senbonzakura. He padded up and gave one blade a sniff, growling slightly. One petal landed on his nose and he jumped back snarling at it and then bent to the ground and gave it a little lick.

"I think they like each other," said Mayu and Byakuya nodded in agreement.

"However, I believe what they would both want is to meet each other in a different way," Byakuya said and subtly altered his stance. Almost belatedly she realized he was going to attack her. She pulled Hitoramizu back and formed a shield around herself just in time for Senbonzakura to smash against it.

_This will be a real fight, not like with Zabimaru._

That scared her. She watched Byakuya's hands flutter and then Senbonzakura was testing her shield again. This time as soon as she withdrew, Mayu dispersed Hitoramizu and sent it directly at Byakuya, he blocked it easily with a flurry of petals and pushed back the attack, this time trying to surround her. Circling herself with metal she kept back a small amount of Hitoramizu and sent that back to attack him, she heard it rebound and called it back.

_You are doing the same things over and over again. Remember, you have an advantage; I can become anything you want. In this form Senbonzakura can only attack or defend._

Abandoning her defense she threw all of Hitoramizu at him watching as he pulled up a shield, but before it hit Mayu called Hitoramizu back and it was chased by a billow of pink. She put up as small of a shield as possible to deflect his attack and then vaporized the rest of Hitoramizu, thrusting it around Byakuya and reformed it only once it was close enough so that Senbonzakura couldn't be called back to shield him. Byakuya looked down at the blades pointing as his throat. She almost smiled until she saw that Senbonzakura had cut her way through her defenses and the blades were whirling around her throat and shoulders. She held still and locking eyes with Byakuya called back Hitoramizu and he did the same with Senbonzakura.

_You did well._

She didn't think so, but Hitoramizu probably knew better.

Byakuya walked over to her and sheathed his sword, she did the same, clumsily putting it in the saya since her hands were shaking from the battle.

"You did amazingly well," he said and touched her shoulder. Looking up she wondered if he was teasing her, but saw nothing but honesty in his eyes.

Giving a small smile she sighed. "So, I guess I lost, hunh?"

"That is a matter of perception. I don't know who would have won if we had followed through," he said calmly although he was shaken at the raw power her zanpakutou had. "If you have time, I would like to show you something within the estate."

"I don't have anything else to do, Kuchiki-sama," she replied and he inclined his head to have her follow him.

He took her to the library and she stared at the thousands of books that lined the walls.

Her eyes grew wide with wonder and she gently ran her hand over some of the bindings, reading the lettering on the side. "Oh, wow. Where did all these come from?"

"My clan has collected them for years. This is actually a small amount, some of my favorites, we have tens of thousands more." Byakuya was glad at his correct interpretation that she would enjoy reading.

"Ermn, not to be rude, Kuchiki-sama, but are there any books here about your family?" she asked and he knit his brows in thought.

"Yes, there should be one or two." Glancing at the books he searched for the familiar bindings. "Here is one." He pulled it gently out and handed it to her. Accepting it with both hands, she smiled. Byakuya pulled over two pillows and made a motion for her to sit down and then sat down beside her as she carefully opened the pages, touching only the edges with her fingertips.

She finished the book about ancient Kuchiki history in a couple of hours and he looked around and brought down another book.

"Sit and listen, this one was written by one of my ancestors," he said and she sat next to him as he flipped the pages. Slowly his low and melodic voice started reading haiku verses, almost all of them about flowers and nature. Soon she was almost lulled to sleep by his voice when he stopped and she snapped awake.

"Was it boring?" he asked.

"No, Kuchiki-sama, it was the rhythm and your voice and as I was imagining the flowers I just got sleepy. I would enjoy it if you were to continue," she said and he nodded. As he continued page after page he noticed her slowly drowsing off again and then she fell against his arm, murmuring appreciation when one haiku moved her.

Suddenly he came to the realization that the closer she was to him, the more he could feel her reiatsu inside of him. She laid her hand on his knee and breathed deeply, smelling his body and feeling comforted as she lay half asleep. After he finished the book she didn't want to move, but felt his hands on her shoulders and prepared to get up when she froze. His lips were brushing her forehead, giving her a quiet kiss, barely noticeable. Mayu looked up at him questioningly and Byakuya suddenly looked uncomfortable, uncertainty bright in his gray eyes. She sat up quickly.

"I'm sorry, Mayu," he said and she dropped her eyes to the tatami. Silently she took stock of her body and realized that she did want Byakuya and that it was not from sharing reiatsu, but why? It was because he had the same strength that she felt in Shinji and she was lonely. That was not a good reason to play with anyone's emotions. She sighed and looked up.

"I'm sorry, Kuchiki-sama. I don't want us to do this for the wrong reasons and right now I think it wouldn't be because you are a wonderful person, it would simply be because I'm lonely and your strength reminds me of Shinji." As soon as she said the words he pulled back sharply.

"I… I wasn't asking for that, Mayu," he said, his mouth dry.

She gave him a sad look. "You weren't, but that is where this would go right now." Mayu realized that because he had been so truly alone for so long he could not see where these affections would lead right now. The veil of indifference started to fall over his features and Mayu felt a sudden sadness that she was pushing this man back who had finally shown parts of himself and now what he had feared was happening, he was being hurt. She knew that intimacy would happen in time and rushing it would not benefit either one of them. Leaning forward she saw him pull back, but she put her arms around him anyway and gave him a gentle hug. Then she gave him a kiss on the side of his neck near his ear and felt his body flush at the contact.

"I care, Kuchiki-sama. This will happen in time," she whispered and quickly got up and went back to her room.

Byakuya sat for another few minutes, wondering what just happened. He could still feel her soft lips on his neck; his fingers fluttered up and he felt the skin on his neck where she had pressed her lips, expecting that it would feel different. After the rush of conflicted emotions passed through him, he thought about the incident and realized she was right, all this would have led to – something more and while he might have been ready for that, he knew that she wasn't quite yet.

He gave a ragged sigh and looked towards the ceiling, trying to figure out what he was doing with this woman. Was he courting her? Or, was it something different. Was it the sharing of reiatsu the previous day? No, it happened before that. He decided that perhaps his mind was too clouded with all the events in the last week and went to meditate and find his bearing again. Stepping into Hisana's room he sat down and closed his eyes, trying to gain a measure of calmness and control over his feelings by being in front of her shrine.

Mayu sighed and returned back to the practice field after a snack and a glass of water. A note was delivered from Renji saying that he wouldn't be able to come back for a little while since the division was getting out of control, but he's see her before the party in three days. She was disappointed, but knew that he had probably spent way too much time with her and neglected his duties horribly.

Around the Rugai she realized she never felt alone. She felt horribly alone now with no one to share thoughts or words with. Sighing, she unsheathed Hitoramizu and called him out and he materialized in front of her, his breath hot on her face.

_Do you know what bankai is?_

The tiger gaped its jaws at her and she nodded a bit and then blushed and shook her head.

_It's the culmination of a shinigami's power. Of course, there are levels to each bankai, it's determined by how much power they want to attain. Senbonzakura has many levels of bankai, and she is still growing._

Mayu didn't know that Senbonzakura was female, but she supposed that that made sense. Byakuya couldn't deal with having another beautiful man around him. She heard the chuckle from Hitoramizu.

_That's not where your mind should be. What do you want from me?_

Mayu thought about that for a while. She didn't know. This all started because Renji wanted to teach her something, but, in the short amount of time she had Hitoramizu, she felt better and more complete. She supposed that she wanted to learn more, grow more, try to fit as many experiences in as she could before…

_Don't dwell. Do you really want to learn more?_

She nodded imperceptibly and Hitoramizu growled at her.

_Doing something half cocked is worse than not doing anything. Do you really want it?_

This time she replied out loud, "Yes."

_What will you give me if I help?_

She thought about that, not knowing what she could do.

"Trust?"

_And?_

"Um, respect?"

_And?_

"My life?"

_I will never harm you. While in battle, as rare as you may believe that may be, you must trust and respect me enough to keep your life safe._

"Agreed."

She realized that Hitoramizu was looking behind her. She stood up, turning and stared at the man standing in front of her. Tall and thin, but with a similar aura of power that Byakuya had. His hair was starkly white and his features gaunt, but his eyes twinkled and he smiled at her. She saw the white haori, a Captain! She bowed low.

"Hello, Taichou-sama, I am Mayu," she said to the dirt of the field.

"Ahh, you are the woman that helped Byakuya," he said with a smile. "I'm Captain Ukitake of the 13th Division." Mayu stood up and saw that Ukitake was waiting for something from her and realized that Hitoramizu was nudging her leg.

"Very pleased to meet you, Ukitake-sama. Um, this is Hitoramizu." She motioned to her materialization and Hitoramizu went up to give Ukitake a sniff. To her surprise Ukitake went down on one knee and held out his hand to Hitoramizu and started scratching under his chin.

"Very unusual," said Ukitake looking at Mayu. "How old is he?"

"Um, I'm sorry, Ukitake-sama, but…" she stammered and he gave her another smile.

"When did you receive your zanpakutou?"

"Two days ago, Ukitake-sama," she replied and his eyes widened and looked at Hitoramizu and the animal gave a slight nod.

"Hm, well, that is something for the books." His eyes gave a glimmer of shock, but it was quickly thrust away and he looked at her kindly. "Have you seen Byakuya?" Mayu nodded.

"He was in the library, Ukitake-sama."

"Well, don't let me disturb you further." Ukitake gave her a small wave and shunpo'd to the Kuchiki library.

"Am I in trouble?"

_I don't think so._

Ukitake knocked on the library door and hear Byakuya's "enter" and walked in. Byakuya was resorting books and looked over at Ukitake as he entered.

"Ukitake," he said and quickly ordered some tea and motioned for the senior captain to sit.

"Byakuya, I just met the woman staying here," he mentioned and Byakuya nodded, trying hard to regain control of his emotions. "Are you going to tell the Commander that you gave her a zanpakutou?" Byakuya gave him a hard glare as he poured Ukitake's tea.

"I didn't. Renji did. She reached materialization in two hours," he said shortly and Ukitake choked on his tea.

"Well, that explains why the Commander wants them all exterminated," Ukitake sighed. "Is she a fair sample of the others?"

"Unknown. From her comments I gather she may be stronger than some, but there are others much stronger than her," he said and Ukitake sighed and stared at the younger man. His reiatsu felt different than the normal icy waves that usually emanated off of him.

"I'm asking because the 13th has been assigned to help the 12th when they start next week." Ukitake took a sip of his tea and watched as Byakuya looked at him in surprise.

"Why?"

"I think because the Commander doesn't trust Mayuri," Ukitake laughed.

"Understandable," replied Byakuya thinking of how he could help Ukitake minimize casualties. While they had had their differences and almost stopped talking to each other when Hisana died, he owed this man a great debt for being his mentor when he was younger as well as a constant friend and companion while he was new to the Gotei 13. "You should talk to Mayu," Byakuya decided.

"The woman? I wouldn't think that she would tell me anything."

"You might be surprised, the Rugai apparently don't think of things the same way we do," Byakuya said shortly and stood up, brushing some dust off his clothing that came from his rearranging of the books.

Ukitake followed as they both shunpo'd back to the training field. They stopped at the edge and Mayu was so absorbed that she didn't notice either one of them. A huge amount of reiatsu was emanating from her and Hitoramizu was in the center of it, growing steadily and emitting a growl that seemed to shake the earth.

"Is that bankai?" Ukitake wondered.

"No, not yet. But I'm sure she'll get it soon." Ukitake stared over at Byakuya, wondering at his calmness.

"How can you be so cavalier about this? It is something that has never happened, not like this, never from a person who wasn't a Shinigami. And how can you predict what her abilities are?" Ukitake asked and Byakuya gave him a blank look.

"I've been around her more than you, I have seen what she is capable of. She has never been trained to attack, but her people have taught themselves reiatsu control that is beyond anything that we could have imagined." Byakuya spoke calmly, feeling the reiatsu on the field rise to captain levels and both men then stood in shock. Suddenly it disappeared, and Hitoramizu vanished and Mayu sat down in exhaustion and disappointment. She wiped the sweat from her face, leaving dusty marks and turned to see the two men looking at her and blushed. Standing quickly she bowed.

"Ukitake-sama, Kuchiki-sama," she said.

Ukitake gave her a nod. "That was impressive, Mayu-san."

She frowned. "Well, not really, Ukitake-sama, I think Hitoramizu is mad at me for not concentrating enough."

"Are you trying to achieve bankai?" Ukitake asked and Mayu hesitated and then nodded.

"I think so, Hitoramizu just tells me what is possible to do and then I try to do it."

"Mayu, Ukitake would like to ask you some questions. We would both understand if you do not want to talk about the Rugai, but he is interested," Byakuya said and Mayu nodded. "We can do this over dinner. Mayu, why don't you get changed and meet us in the waterfall garden?" Mayu bowed and ran off.

"She doesn't shunpo?"

"I've never seen it," Byakuya replied and the two went to the garden.

"So, Byakuya, you seem more relaxed. Vacation treating you well?" Ukitake said and sipped the sake that Byakuya ordered before dinner.

"Hm. Well, I found some people who can help me manage the estate so I will be able to devote more time to the Gotei," Byakuya replied. "I didn't think I would be able to find competent people this quickly. I should probably come back sooner before Renji destroys part of Seireitei." Ukitake snorted with laughter.

"He is doing fine. The division got in an altercation with 11th yesterday and he took care of it with panache. You have a valuable fukutaichou, I hope you appreciate him."

Byakuya gave a non-committal grunt, drinking his sake quickly.

"So, how did you get the Commander to let this woman stay here?" Ukitake pried and Byakuya gave a shrug.

"I think he dislikes Mayuri as much as any of us, so he did it to spite him. Once the Rugai are exterminated I am ordered to execute her." Byakuya's face got harder thinking about it.

"Hmm, sounds like the Commander," Ukitake nodded and sighed. "So, will you actually do it?"

"Kill her?" Byakuya raised an eyebrow. "If it comes to that, yes."

"What if she uses her new zanpakutou to resist you?" Ukitake asked and Byakuya gave him a glance and then returned his eyes to the waterfall.

"She won't," he said feeling the truth of it.

Ukitake gave another sigh and watched Mayu come up and bow to them both.

"Ukitake-sama, Kuchiki-sama, thank you for letting me have this meal with you," she said and carefully poured them both more sake before sitting down.

"Mayu-san." Ukitake offered her some sake and she declined. The servants started serving the dishes and soups. After each of them had taken the edge of their hunger Ukitake looked quizzically at Mayu. "Are you sure you are okay with answering my questions?" he asked and she nodded.

"In the end it will prevent more people from dying or getting hurt, perhaps. Our Elders probably already know this is happening," she said and Ukitake nodded, unsurprised that she knew what his role was.

"Can you tell me about the structure of the Rugai?"

She took a deep breath. "There are a group of Meue who are the highest rank in our race, but there aren't many. They were the original Rugai, but most of them have been killed. Each one is in charge of one of the clans. They are amazingly strong. Some of the lower Rugai can't even be in their presence or they'll end up in seizure. Under the Meue are the Elders who were usually born of the Rugai, not given power, though there are some of those who are strong enough who become elders. Each clan has 5-40 of the Elders depending on the clan's size. The Elders are the only ones trained and allowed to do any destructive or aggressive acts. If any other Rugai does them to a friend or enemy they will be immediately executed. We have a few dozen cases a year. Under the Elders are people in charge of each area of the community, depending on how large that community is the number can range from a handful to a few dozen. There are no more clans that are over a thousand Rugai now. The Rugai who have good reiatsu are usually kept to help train younger ones or as healers or Elders," she said and Ukitake listened, amazed that such an advanced race could have been hidden from so many for so long.

"What was your position?" Ukitake asked.

"I am a healer, my husband was a Elder. We protected some of the children of the Rugai. When a Rugai is born they are usually taken from their parents immediately because if the bond is too high then if that child is threatened that parent will break our non-aggression laws. They are sent to people who can care for them until they reach a few years old when they are instated into a clan. My husband and I and a few others took care of a couple dozen children in a Sanctuary, which are smaller than clans; we taught them some reiatsu control as well as gauged their abilities so that the Elders would know where they would belong later in life. To the Rugai the children are the most important thing, since that is what keeps the race going. The Meue can transfer reiatsu from themselves to a non-Rugai and sometimes it will take hold and give that person more abilities like a Rugai, but sometimes it can kill them as well. Two people who have had the reiatsu transferred will not make a Rugai child. It takes at least one full blooded Rugai to make a Rugai child, but that child will always be born a full blooded Rugai," Mayu replied and Ukitake thought about that for a while.

"How much resistance can be expected from the clans?"

Mayu gave a small shrug. "If you go to one of the bigger ones and there are many Elders, quite a bit. We've defended against Shinigami before and won even a few times. If you take out the smaller clans, well, as long as you have numbers it will be easy. We can match each other's reiatsu and combine it, thus creating more strength. Only the Elders can use it offensively, I don't know how to measure their strength to give you an idea, Ukitake-sama," she said and looked down.

"Okay, compared to the amount of reiatsu that you were doing when you were training a few minutes ago, how much can they give out compared to that," Ukitake asked.

"That depends on how many there are. I can probably do half as much as the Meue have the ability to produce. But it goes up exponentially with each person added. I am a lot stronger too when there are Rugai around to share reiatsu. So, if you have two elders, it's four times as much, but then with each added after that it would still multiply, but not quite as much. So ten elders might be fifty times as much if they bond together."

Ukitake felt his eyes widen at the thought of what that strength would mean in battle. "How often have you won against the Shinigami?"

"I don't know. Usually when a large clan is attacked, the shinigami are repelled, if we do take serious losses the clan moves location. They have recently been going after the Sanctuaries and have been exterminating them quickly. We have had some survivors to tell us what happened, but usually we find out because they stop communicating with us and then a scout goes and finds them all dead," she said. Ukitake coughed uncomfortably when suddenly his lungs spasmed and he coughed until blood spattered in his hand.

"Why don't you have the Shinigami heal your lungs, Ukitake-sama?" Mayu asked after waiting for his fit to pass and Ukitake looked at her sadly.

"They can't. It's a disease spread by my reiatsu, so, unless the reiatsu can be cured, my body cannot. I have treatments every few days that keep it suppressed, but as I am getting older, the treatments don't work as well and there is no known way to cure reiatsu sicknesses," Ukitake said and wondered what prompted her to say that.

"How old are you?" Mayu asked and Byakuya opened his mouth to chide her for such a rude question but Ukitake waved him down.

"I'm just under 1000 right now, 995 to be exact, Mayu-san," he said and she gasped. 995? How could someone possibly live to be that old? The oldest person in her Rugai was life was 102. She was only 40. Yet this person had survived for this long, as a Shinigami, who fought?

"Ukitake-sama, may I have permission to touch you?" she asked and Ukitake looked startled and glanced at Byakuya who shrugged.

"Uh, alright," he said and she knelt behind him and put her hands on his back. From his angle Byakuya could see both Mayu and Ukitake's face. Mayu bent her head down and Byakuya noticed that she was absorbing what looked to be a serious amount of Ukitake's reiatsu. Ukitake tried to stand up but Mayu said in an icy tone, "Sit." Byakuya wondered if Mayu was trying to kill the man, but the warmth in his heart said that she wouldn't ever do such a thing. Ukitake slumped as a decent portion of his reiatsu was taken and Byakuya looked at Mayu in alarm, maybe she did want to kill him! But Mayu had her head bowed and was biting her bottom lip. A drop of blood appeared and she took it on her fingertip and placed it in Ukitake's mouth. Byakuya's eyes widened as he felt all the reiatsu that had been inside of Mayu rush back into Ukitake along with most of her own. The blood had been some sort of catalyst, he thought. Ukitake sat up and stared at her, Mayu sat down heavily and Byakuya realized why, she had just put most of her reiatsu into Ukitake and her own was very slowly regenerating.

"Mayu, are you alright?" he asked and she nodded.

"Um, I just need a couple of hours," she said and moved back to her pillow. She looked over at Ukitake and he stared at her.

"You changed it, how did you change it?" Byakuya looked at him in confusion. "Byakuya, she changed my reiatsu, I mean, it's still mine, but without the disease."

"Um, I took most of it and then found the bits that were killing you and took them out, well, most of them and then put it all back into you. I had to give you my reiatsu too so it would jumpstart your system and let you accept it, that's what the blood was for, so your body wouldn't reject it. I'm not an Elder Healer and I would need to do that at least two or three more times to make sure that I got it all. Rugai children are often born with defects in their reiatsu, so we had to learn how to clear them out or there would be no more children," she said and started shoveling food into her mouth to help her reiatsu refill faster.

"This is amazing," Ukitake said in wonder. Byakuya studied Ukitake and realized that his reiatsu was slightly different now, seemed more clean and fresh. He stared at Mayu stuffing another piece of sushi in her mouth and wondered what else she could do that had previously been unknown.

"If there is anything that I can do for you, Mayu-san, please ask," Ukitake said sincerely and Byakuya was surprised, Ukitake never gave out favours lightly. Ukitake meant it when he said that he would do anything, well, almost anything. Mayu apparently didn't grasp the enormity as she only just met him but inclined her head to his offer.

"It was my pleasure, Ukitake-sama. Um, in a few days when my reiatsu has worked out of your system, we should do it again and then repeat it until the disease truly gone. Right now I believe that I got most of it, but it will manifest itself very slowly again if we don't finish treating it," she said and Ukitake smiled.

"I'll be back then." Byakuya looked up as a messenger arrived and knelt before Ukitake. Ukitake took the message and frowned.

"I am sorry, but I have to leave, Byakuya-san, Mayu-san. Hopefully we can continue this later." He rushed out; looking healthier than Byakuya had ever seen him before.

…

**Omake for Healing (references previous chapter's omake - read that first or it may not make sense!)**

…

The barracks was in an uproar when Renji arrived. People were yelling, officers were shouting, women were crying, it was as if the sky had fallen.

"What the HELL happened?" Renji shouted at the top of his voice and suddenly the barracks became still and Renji couldn't even hear anyone breathe. Finally one of the seated officers looked around a corner.

"Abarai-fukutaichou!"

Renji pierced him with his best "Kuchiki-gaze" and gave a glare to the Division, waiting for a response.

A red faced female shinigami who had only newly transferred in finally took and breath and a couple of steps towards the angry fukutaichou.

"Abarai-fukutaichou, we were just… discussing the absence of Kuchiki-taichou."

Growling, Renji saw that everyone was hanging on whatever he was going to say.

"Are you all insane? Che! I brought Kuchiki-taichou by a few days ago, he's fine, he killed all the arrancar. The man is on vacation!"

Murmurs and then silence.

The woman who spoke before looked to the others for support and they nudged her forward again.

"Not that, Abarai-fukutaichou. We were discussing the fact that he isn't available anymore."

"Available? He'll be back in three weeks or so." Abarai was now feeling the confusion seep into him. Whatever this was about it was not whatever happened with the 11th Division.

"I meant that he's no longer single, Abarai-fukutaichou!" the woman almost wailed and suddenly the Division was in an uproar again.

"Why wouldn't Kuchiki-taichou be single anymore?" Renji yelled again over the din.

Silence.

Muttering and whispers.

Renji felt as if his brain was about to explode when a voice piped up from the back of the crowd.

"That means you and Kuchiki-taichou aren't… together?"

Feeling his face get red he stared at the Division, everyone was waiting.

"Gods help us all, no, we're not together. Where in the WORLD did you get that idea?" Renji sputtered, hating the bizarre Shinigami grapevine.

"You were staying in the Kuchiki estate and people said that you were wearing his clothes yesterday!"

"I am **not **together with Kuchiki-taichou!" Renji bellowed at the top of his lungs, totally losing his cool and whipping out Zabimaru, making the 6th Division scatter in fear.

A face of one of the officers peeked out from behind a table.

"Sorry, Abarai-fukutaichou. Uh, we have three people who were kidnapped by the 11th Division, too. The 11th said that they were the dragons who were going to eat the princesses and the only way we could get them back is to do battle with them."

Renji gave a long sigh, Commander-General really needed to keep the 11th more active.

"Who is guarding them right now?"

"Yachiru."

Renji broke into a smile. "Go to the store and get a kilogram of hard candy, quickly. This'll be easy."

He was walking out of the Division when he heard the whispers again.

"You think he got angry because we found out about him and Kuchiki-taichou?"

"_**Hoero Zabimaru!"**_

* * *

Okay, I finally cut some more chapters - for people who didn't read the 1st chapter, this was written as one long brain fart from my head (and actually I've kept on writing on writing side arcs, so I suppose it isn't 'really' done yet) so I have to cut it up into 'sorta-chapters' and then revise the heck outta them before posting them (as what comes outta my brain is only readable to me initially.) This will be turning into M on Chapter 10. A few chapters after that there will be violent sex/non-con stuff etc. I will be labelling chapters that involve that stuff.


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